JUDGMENT :

MANOJ MISRA, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. These appeals are by the State of Madhya Pradesh against the judgement and order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur (for short “the High Court”) dated 11.12.2015 in Criminal Appeal No.1292 of 2015 connected with Criminal Reference No.2 of 2015 whereby, the order of conviction and sentence including death penalty awarded to the respondent by the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Anuppur in Sessions Trial No.72 of 2010, under sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short “IPC”) has been set aside and the respondent has been acquitted.

3. To have a clear understanding of the issues raised in these appeals a brief description of the prosecution case and the evidence led by the prosecution would be apposite.

Introductory Facts

4. The prosecution story narrated in the first information report (FIR), lodged by deceased’s brother Kamla (PW2), is that the accused-respondent was unhappy that his wife Sundariya (the deceased) had kept her jewellery with her sister Jaimatiya Bai (PW8); on the fateful day i.e. 01.02.2010, at around 1400 hours, the accused came to the house of PW2, while PW8 was there, fought with PW8 an