JUDGMENT :

B. Veerappa, J.

1. The accused filed the present Criminal Appeal against the judgment and order of conviction dated 24.03.2015 made in S.C. No. 32/2014 on the file of the II Additional Sessions Judge, Chikkamagaluru, sentencing the accused/appellant herein to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 3,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo further sentence of simple imprisonment for a period of three months, for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

I. FACTS OF THE CASE

2. It is the case of the prosecution that the accused being the husband of the deceased Kamalamma, on 14.02.2001, early in the morning at about 4.00 am, in the vacant land of Sri Erappa and Puttegowda, bearing Sy. No. 247 of Undedasarahalli, Chikkamagaluru, committed the murder of Kamalamma intentionally by strangulating her with a nylon rope, when she was sleeping, as she refused to accompany the accused to his native place at Boranahalli, Holalkere Taluk. Based on the complaint made by P.W. 1-mother of the deceased, the jurisdictional police conducted the investigation and filed absconding charge sheet for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Ind