P.V. Hardas, J.

1. The Appellant Sahebrao Lukdu Jadhav (Original Accused No.2), who stands convicted for an offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced to imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.5000/-, in default of the payment to undergo simple imprisonment of one year, by Additional Sessions Judge-1, Malegaon by judgment dated 31 August 2008, in Sessions Case No.143 of 2006, challenges his conviction and sentence.

2 It appears that the original accused no.1-Kishor Sahebrao Jadhav was also convicted for an offence punishable under Section 177 of IPC and was sentenced to SI for two years and to pay fine of Rs.1000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for six months. He has not filed any appeal challenging his conviction and sentence as both the accused were in jail since 20.9.2005 and accused no.1- Kishor had undergone the sentence passed by the Trial Court.

3. The facts, as are necessary for the decision of this appeal, may briefly be stated thus:

(i) PW-10- Head Constable Motiram G. Hiray who was attached to police station, Jaikheda and was on duty on 16.9.2005, was informed by the in-charge of police station, Jaikheda about the information given by accused no.1-Kishore Sahebrao Jadhav to the police station regarding the vehicular accident. The aforesaid information was reduced into writing by PW-12- Ashok Pardeshi, in-charge of police station at Exhibit-40. On the basis of the said information of accused no.1- Kishor, an offence vide Crime No.26 of 2005 was registered as motor accident offence and the investigation was entrusted to PW-10- Police Head Constable Motiram Hiray.

(ii) PW-10- Head Constable Motiram Hiray on being entrusted with the investigation, returned to the police station and thereafter went to the scene of incident in the Jaipur shivar near Munjya nallah. On reaching the scene of incident, he had noticed a crowd had assembled there and the dead body was lying there. Inquest panchanama of the dead body of Vijay was drawn by PW-10 in the presence of panch-witness at Exhibit-28. At a distance of 5 ft. from the dead body, he had noticed a motorcycle bearing No.MH-41-E-8402. PW-10-Police Head Constable Hiray prepared the inquest report for referring the dead body of Vijay for postmortem at Exhibit-31. After the dead body was referred for postmortem, PW-10 Police Head Constable Hiray drew scene of incident panchanama at Exhibit-22. He recorded the statements of witnesses and on the next day submitted his report in the police station as a complaint at Exhibit-32. On the basis of the said complaint, he registered an offence under Section 279, 337, 338 and 304-A of IPC and under Section 184 of Motor Vehicles Act.

(iii) PW-13 API Shivaji Shendge who was attached to the police station, Jaikheda and who was on duty on 16.9.2005, was aware about the information given by accused no.1 and the report being scribed by PW-12 Ashok Pardeshi and about the registration of the offence. Further investigation was entrusted to the said PW-13 API Shivaji Shendge and accordingly he recorded the statements of witnesses. Meanwhile, PW-11 Bhausaheb Namdeo Thoke, uncle of the deceased Vijay made an application at the police station at Exhibit-34 expressing his suspicion that the death of his nephew deceased Vijay was not in a vehicular accident, but was a homicidal death. In the application at Exhibit-34, PW-11 Bhausaheb had mentioned the name of an eye-witness namely PW-4 Shaikh Nassimuddin Kasam. This application was received on 19.9.2005. PW-13 API Shendge accordingly recorded the statement of PW-11 Bhausaheb and on the next day i.e. 20.9.2005 recorded the statements of PW-4 Shaikh and PW-5 Ambadas Ratan Nerkar and others. On the basis of the said statements, he registered an offence punishable under Section 302 read Section 34 of IPC and accordingly submitted a report to the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Satana. The report is at Exhibit-42. On the same day