(Per B. Seshasayana Reddy, J.)

This Criminal Appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and sentence of accused No.1 for the offences punishable under Sections 498-A and 302 of IPC in Sessions Case No. 19 of 1996 on the file of the learned I Addl. Sessions Judge, Ranga Reddy at Saroornagar. The appellant herein was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years and pay a fine of Rs. 500/- in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three months for the offence under Section 498-A of IPC and imprisonment for life for the offence under Section 302 of IPC Both the sentences are ordered to be run concurrently.

2. The prosecution case in brief is as follows. P.W.1 D.Venkata Chary and P.W.2 Smt. D.Shoba are the parents of the deceased jyothi. She got married to the appellant-A-1 six years prior to the date of incident. Her marital life with the appellant-A-1 ran in rough weather and consequently, she stayed with her parents for about an year. 20 days prior to the incident, the appellant-A-1 along with other acquitted accused (A-2 to A-7) went to the house of P.Ws. 1 and 2 and persuaded them to send deceased Smt. Jyothi with him and he assured them that he would treat the deceased cordially and affectionately. On the said assurance, the deceased joined with the appellant-A-1. On the intervening night of 6/7-5-1995, the appellant-A-1 allegedly asked the deceased to have sexual intercourse with him and in deed he had sex with her and when the appellant-A-1 asked to have sexual intercourse for the second time, the deceased resisted for the same and it enraged the appellant-A-1 and consequently, the appellant-A-1 dealt blows on her and pushed a stick in her private parts and thereby killed her. P.W.5 M. Anjaiah - the village Sarpanch came to know the death of the deceased on 7-5-1995 at about 6.50 a.m. He went to the house of the appellant-A-1 and saw the dead body of deceased Jyothi and sent the information to the police and also to the parents of the deceased. P.Ws.1 and 2, who are the parents of the deceased, received the intimation and reached the house of the accused and found the dead body of the deceased. P.W.1 presented a report before P.W.13 Ashok-the Sub-Inspector of Police, Shamirpet Police Station. Ex.P-1 is the report submitted by him. Basing on EX.P-1 report, P.W.13 registered a case and sent EX.P-10 FIR to court while marking copies of the same to the authorities concerned. He also sent requisition to the Mandal Revenue Officer to conduct the inquest over the dead body of the deceased Jyothi. He examined P.Ws. 1 to 4 and recorded their statements. P.W.15 A. Satyanarayana Rao, Inspector of Police, took up investigation and visited Anantharam village and learnt that the appellant-A-1 made an extra-judicial confession before P.W.8. He examined P.W.8 on 16-5-1995 and recorded his statement. He effected the arrest of the appellant-A-1 on 18-5-1995 and recovered M.O. 5 stick in pursuance of the disclosure statement of appellant-A-1 under the cover of panchanama and sent the material objects to Forensic Science Laboratory. After completing the investigation, he laid chargesheet in the court of the learned Judicial First Class Magistrate, Medchal. The learned Magistrate took the charge-sheet on file as P.R.CN 0.22 of 1995 and as the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code is exclusively triable by Court of Sessions, he committed the case to the Sessions Division, Ranga Reddy District. On committal, the learned Sessions Judge heard the prosecution and the accused and framed the following charges:

Charge No.1: Against the appellant-A-1 and the acquitted Accused (A-2 to A-7) for the offence under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code.

Charge No.2: Against the appellant-A-1 for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

3. The appellant-A-1 and the acquitted accused (A-2 to A-7) pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

4. To substantiate the charges levelled against the accused, the prosec