JUDGMENT

Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, J.

1. The Appellant is aggrieved by the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Allahabad dated 15th December, 2009 passed in Criminal Appeal No. 3302 of 2003 confirming the conviction and sentence imposed on him Under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. While convicting the Appellant the trial court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment apart from fine of Rs. 10,000/- with default clause of one year rigorous imprisonment.

2. It is a case of circumstantial evidence.

3. According to the prosecution, the Appellant was living alone with his wife, the deceased Suman in his first floor portion at A 353, Awas Vikas Colony, Tiwaripur, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and the ground floor portion was lying vacant. They got married on 17th September, 1999. The occurrence took place on the intervening night of 30th and 31st January, 2001 at around 4:00 a.m.

3.1 As per the contents of the First Information Report, P.W. 1 one Chandra Mohan Pandey, brother of the deceased received information about the death of his sister at 7:30 a.m. through P.W. 2 Ram Prakash Dubey who is none other than his cousin who was also living in the same locality where the Appellant and the deceased were living. P.W. 2 reached the spot along with his mother at 9:30 a.m. and at 10.05 a.m., F.I.R. came to be registered. It was alleged in the F.I.R. that his sister was murdered by the Appellant with the help of his friend.

3.2 Based on the above F.I.R., after the registration of the crime though the close relatives of the Appellant, as well as, one Ramzan were implicated as accused by supplement and additional charge sheets for offences Under Sections 498A, 304B read with Section 120B as well as Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, ultimately the Appellant was charged for the offence Under Section 302 along with Ramzan. After trial, the trial court found that the Appellant was the sole accused who was responsible for the killing of his wife and he alone was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment as referred to above.

3.3 As per the evidence of P.W. 6, Dr. V.V. Tripathi who conducted the post mortem of the deceased, there were as many as 20 injuries on the body of the deceased and almost all of them were incised wounds. As it was a case of circumstantial evidence, the trial court after assimilating all the evidence placed before it has identified the circumstances in order to find the Appellant guilty of the offence, Under Section 302 in killing his wife with severe injuries.

4. Clinching circumstances which were identified and noted by the trial Court which has been stated in paragraphs 96 to 100 can be listed as under:

(i) As per the evidence of P.W. 1, the deceased, his sister visited his house after the marriage 3 to 4 times and told him that she was being beaten and abused by her in-laws.

(ii) The Appellant visited P.W. 1 on 28th January, 2001 for vidai of Suman and after vidai in the evening of 29thJanuary, 2001 she was found in the company of the Appellant. On 30th/31st January, 2001 the deceased was living and was staying in the matrimonial home at First Floor, A-353, Awas Vikas Colony, Tiwaripur, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

(iii) In his statement Under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Appellant admitted that the deceased was with him till before her death on the morning of 31st January, 2001.

(iv) On the morning of 31st January, 2001, admittedly, the Appellant was found in his residence at around 9:00 a.m.

(v) The Appellant was arrested by the Police at 11:00 p.m. on the same day. The arrest was made by P.W. 7.

(vi) Based on the admissible portion of the Confession Statement of the Appellant, Exhibit (1), the kitchen knife alleged to have been used in the murder of the deceased was recovered from the kitchen slab of the house of the Appellant in the presence of the accused which was established by Exhibit KA 3.

Apart from the signature of the Appellant, it also contained the signature of P.W. 2,