JUDGMENT :

Revati Mohite Dere, J.

1. This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 30th June 2008 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ratnagiri in Sessions Case No.8/2007, convicting the appellant, as under :

- for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, to suffer imprisonment for life;

- for the offence punishable under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code to suffer rigorous imprisonment (`RI’) for two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-, in default, to suffer RI for 3 months;

- Both the said sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

Vide the very same judgment and order, co-accused No. 2-Sagar Kambale was acquitted of all the offences with which he was charged, for the reasons set-out in the said judgment and order.

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is as under :

On 20th July 2006, Dipak Awasare went to meet his nephew-Sameerkumar (appellant) to collect his share of money/income of the mango trees, from the appellant. As Dipak did not return, a missing complaint was lodged by PW 1-Dilip Awasare on 22nd July 2006. On 23rd July 2006, the dead body of Dipak was found floating in a well in the land of Vasant Awasare (PW 2). Pursuant thereto, an ADR was registered on 23rd July 2006 by PW 14-Prabhakar Sawant. On 24th July 2006, PW 1-Dilip Awasare lodged an FIR as against the appellant and co-accused-Sagar Kambale alleging offences punishable under Sections 302 r/w 34 and 201 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

During the course of investigation, statements of several witnesses came to be recorded and after investigation, charge-sheet came to be filed as against the appellant and co-accused-Sagar Kambale in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Rajapur. Since the offence was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, the case came to be committed by the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Rajapur, to the Court of Sessions, on 25th January 2007.

On 7th September 2007, charge was framed as against the appellant and co-accused-Sagar Kambale, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

The prosecution, in support of its case, examined as many as fourteen witnesses i.e. PW1-Dilip Madhukar Awasare, first informant and brother of deceased; PW2-Vasant Sakharam Awasare, Panch to the Inquest Panchanama; PW3-Suresh Shankar Girkar, Panch to the recovery of chappal, umbrella and weapon `Tas’ at the instance of the appellant; PW4-Madhusudan Dipak Awasare, son of the deceased on motive; PW5-Mahendra Prabhakar Manjarekar, panch to the recovery of motorcycle and clothes at the instance of the appellant; PW6-Sadanand Vishnu Awasare, who made inquiry with the workers of the appellant, as to whether appellant was at home at the relevant time, at the behest of the deceased-Dipak; PW7-Suresh Balkrishna Gurav, Panch to the recovery of rope at the instance of co-accused No.2-Sagar Kambale; PW8-Ajay Sadashiv Bhosale, Village Kotwal, who had last seen the deceased with the appellant on 20th July 2006; PW9-Sunil Narayan Gurav, the carpenter, who was working in the house of the appellant, to show that they had not seen the appellant on 21st July 2006; PW10-Rupali Kunjvihari Narkar, to whom extra-judicial confession was made by the appellant; PW11-Nilam Kunjvihari Narkar i.e. mother of PW10, from whom a gunny bag containing coconuts were taken by the appellant, however, a different gunny bag was returned by the appellant (it is alleged by the prosecution that the gunny bag taken from PW10 was used by the appellant in the commission of the murder of the deceased i.e. by putting stones in the gunny bag and tying it to the deceased); PW12-Dr. Mahendra Gavade-Medical Officer, who conducted the post-mortem examination on the deceased; PW13-Suresh Shankar Manve, Police Inspector who conducted the investigation in the said case; and PW14-Prabhakar Sawant, Police Sub-Inspector who received a call from Police Patil with respect to a dead body being found in the Well of village Padave. T