Smt. NISHITA MHATRE, J.:- By this Appeal, the Appellant impugns the judgment and order of the IIIrd Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Pune in Sessions Case No.112 of 2000. He has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life.

2. It is the case of the prosecution that the accused resided with his wife Sitabai and his son Arun in the house of one Sitaram Gade. The accused spent Rs.10,000/- in cash for the marriage of his son besides presenting his daughter in law with gold ornaments on that occasion. He often demanded the' amount of Rs.10,000/- from his son as well as the return of the gold ornaments. This led to frequent quarrels between the father and the son. Six months after his marriage, Arun left the house with his wife and stayed separately from his parents. He visited his parents almost every week when his mother often complained that the accused beat her and quarrelled with her because Arun had not returned the money and the gold ornaments. On 19th December, 1999, the accused threw a grinding stone on his wife while she was asleep at about 3.00 a.m. The deceased Sitabai sustained a bleeding injury on her head. The accused informed his son Arun of the incident in the morning. It is the case of the prosecution that the accused confessed to his son about having committed the murder and asked him to save him. The deceased was taken to hospital by the accused, Arun and his wife. The deceased died on 23rd December, 1999. The son lodged a complaint against the father on 20th December, 1999. The case was registered initially under Section 307. However, after the death of Sitabai, it was registered under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

3. The spot panchanama was prepared and the accused was arrested on 20th December, 1999. His blood stained clothes were seized by the police. After the death of Sitabai, an inquest panchanama was drawn up and the post-mortem examination was conducted. The attached articles were sent to the Chemical Analyser who submitted a report stating that all the articles seized, including the grinding stone, the clothes of the accused and the clothes of the deceased, were stained with human blood.

4. It is in these circumstances that the accused has been found guilty of the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. There are no eye-witnesses to the incident which occurred at about 3.00 a.m. Therefore, the case of the prosecution rests on circumstantial evidence. According to the prosecution, the circumstances pointing to the guilt of the accused are (i) that he had frequent quarrels with his wife since the son had not returned the money that he had spent for his marriage expenses; (ii) that the accused had confessed to P. W.1 of having committed the crime; (iii) that the grinding stone bore human blood; (iv) the blood stains on the clothes of both the deceased and the accused were identified as belonging to blood group "A" and (v) that the medical evidence indicated a head injury. The nature of the injuries suffered by the deceased has been described by P. W.4, the Doctor.

5. P. W.1 who has been examined is the son of the deceased and the accused and is the complainant in the present case. He has deposed that his father, the accused, often quarrelled with him since he was unable to return the amount spent by his father for his marriage. He has further deposed that he had complained to the police about the incident on 20th December, 1999, only after there was a discussion with his relatives in the hospital in the afternoon of 20th December, 1999. On the other hand, the statement of the accused recorded under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code indicates that he has denied having committed the offence. He has stated that when he went to answer the call of nature at midnight of 18th December, 1999 and 19th December, 1999, his son P.W.1 came inside the house and threw a grinding stone on

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