JUDGMENT :

B.R. GAVAI, J.

1. The present appeal challenges the judgment dated 15th September 2009 passed by the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan at Jodhpur in D.B. Criminal Appeal No. 25 of 1986, thereby acquitting the respondent-accused herein and reversing the judgment dated 10th January 1986 passed by the learned District and Sessions Judge, Jodhpur (hereinafter referred to as the “trial court”) in Original Criminal Case No.114 of 1984, thereby convicting the respondent-accused herein under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short “IPC”) and sentencing him to undergo life imprisonment. The respondent-accused was also convicted under Section 201 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo three years’ rigorous imprisonment.

2. The respondent–accused was charged for an offence punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC. It is the prosecution case that the accused had killed his wife with a lathi, dragged her 100 feet away from the house and set her on fire in order to destroy the evidence.

3. The trial court, after appreciating the evidence, convicted the respondent–accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced him to suffer life impris