A. P. LAVANDE, J. :- By this appeal, the appellant/accused takes exception to the judgment and order dt. 26.2.2009 passed by the Sessions Judge, Chandrapur in Sessions Case No.100 of 2008 convicting the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 498-A of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months respectively.

2. Briefly stated, the prosecution case is as under:

During the intervening night of 25.5.2008 and 26.5.2008, Head Constable Safdarkhan Ahamadkhan Pathan (PW-12) was on duty at Police Chowky, General hospital, Chandrapur. He received requisition (Exh.17) from the Medical Officer in the hospital for recording statement of the patient namely Kalpana Ashok Sontakke - the deceased. On receiving such requisition, he went to Burn Ward No.6 and made an enquiry with Dr. Ajay Wasade (PW-8) as to whether Kalpana was fit to give her statement. Dr. Wasade examined the patient and informed him that she was fit to give her statement. He recorded her statement as per her say. She informed that her husband used to suspect her character and quarrel with her on this count. On 25.8.2008, at about 8.00 p.m., the accused asked her to prepare tea for him. Thereafter, the accused said to Kalpana that she was not paying attention to him. The deceased told him that she had just returned to house from the marriage after attending the marriage. The accused in response, said that the deceased was always giving one reason or the other to avoid the work. Thereafter, there was a quarrel between the accused and the deceased. The accused took out kerosene from the kerosene Can in a steel Container of tiffin, poured it on the body of deceased and set her ablaze by means of a match stick. After sometime, the accused poured water on her body and extinguished the fire. Thereafter, the accused opened the door of the house and left the house. Head Constable Safdarkhan Pathan (PW-12) recorded the statement of deceased (Exh.70) as per her say.

3. On 25.6.2008, ASI Ganga Shankar Dubey prepared Spot panchanama (Exh.63) in the presence of two panchas. From the spot, one kerosene Can (Article 5), one Steel Container (Article 6), pieces of bangles (Article 7), burnt pieces of clothes of deceased (Article 8), plain soil (Article 10) and kerosene mixed soil (Article 11) were seized vide Exhs. 64 and 65. On the same day, Naib-Tahsildar Sampat Pandurang Khalate (PW-3) received requisition letter (Exh.27) from the police chowky to record statement of Kalpana. He proceeded to the General Hospital, Chandrapur. He recorded the statement (Exh.28) of Kalpana as per her say in the presence of Medical Officer Dr. Roshan Bhiwapurkar (PW-11). On the basis of the said statement, API Gawai (PW-9) registered the offence under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code on 26.5.2008 vide printed F.I.R. (Exh.55) and sent case papers to Police Station, Rajura for further investigation. On the same day itself, in the evening, PSI Manish Bansod (PW-10) proceeded to General Hospital, Chandrapur and collected the clothes of patient under seizure panchanama (Exh.59) in the presence of two panchas. The said clothes were saree and blouse (Articles 1 and 2). On the same day, the accused was arrested under Arrest panchanama (Exh.34) and clothes of the accused (Articles 3 and 4) were seized under panchanama (Exh.60). On 28.5.2008, PSI Bansod recorded statement of Kalpana (Exh.61). Thereafter, statements of several witnesses were recorded and all the seized articles were sent to the Chemical Analyser for chemical analysis. Kalpana succumbed to the injuries on 5.8.2008. Therefore, Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was added and the dead body of Kalpana was referred for post mortem. Dr. Anil Mundhada (PW-1) conducted p