D.P.S.Choudhary, J.

1. The sole appellant has preferred this appeal against the judgment and order dated 26th of March, 1998 passed by the 7th Additional District and Sessions Judge, Chapra in Sessions Trial No. 43 of 1990 convicting the appellant for the offence under section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as the IPC) and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. The appellant was charged for the offence under sections 302, 304-B and 201 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. However, he has not been found guilty for the other offences.

2. The brief facts of the case is that appellant Arvind Tiwari was married with Gita Kumari (deceased) in Feburary, 1988. The informant Surendra Mishra (P.W. 4) who is uncle of the deceased in his fardbeyan (Ext. 7) alleged that he came to know about the death of Gita Kumari on 24.11.1988. However, after the recovery of the dead body the F.l.R. was lodged on 1.12.1988 and investigation taken up. The charge-sheet was submitted against the accused and after commitment the trial proceeded in the court below.

3. The prosecution in all examined 10 witnesses, out of whom P.W. 1 (Ras Bihari Singh) and P.W. 5 (Om Prakash Chourasiya) are formal witnesses, who have proved the signatures on the seizure- list (Exts. 1/1 and 1/2) and the sanction order (Ext. 2) respectively. P.W. 2 (Suresh Kumar Singh) has been declared hostile and P.W. 6 (RajendraTiwari) has been tendered for cross-examination. P.W. 7 (Anand Prakash Gupta) is the l.O. and Dr. A.K. Sinha (P.W. 8) held the postmortem on the dead body of the victim lady. Remaining witnesses, including P.W. 3 (Purna Chandra Tiwari), Biresh Mishra (P.W. 9), are brothers of the deceased and Lalpari Devi (P.W. 10), her mother, are material witnesses.

4. The defence has examined six witnesses and have brought on record some letters alleged to have been written by the deceased and her relation. They have been marked Ext. A series. D.W. 1 (Nand Kishore Tiwari), D.W. 2 (Dhanesh Tiwari), D.W. 3 (Yogendra Tiwari) and D.W. 4 (Bhikhan Singh) have deposed on the point that neither there was any demand of dowry nor the victim lady died due to burn injury. D.W. 5 (Uma Shankar Ojha) and D.W. 6 (Birendra Tiwari) are related to the accused.

5. From the evidence adduced on behalf of the parties and considering the facts and circumstances the trial court has come to the finding that appellant who is husband of the deceased lady, has committed murder of his wife after few months of her marriage.

6. P.W. 8 who held the postmortem examination of the deceased has found the following ante-mortem injuries on her persons :

The body was found to be in an advance stage of decomposition. Rigour mortis was absent. Colour of the eyes could not be noted as cornias have become cloudy. There was small amount of hair on the scalp. Very large portion of the skin all over the body was absent and underlying subcutaneous fat was exposed. Whatever skin was present over chest and right arm showed evidence of ante mortem burn injuries. Tongue was partially out of the mouth. No other discernible signs of injury found over the body. On dissection, the abdomen was found to be distended and stomach contained digested food. The viscera were decomposing, the uterous was nogrivid. The respiratory passages contained few carbon particles from water after decomposition the skin peels off. The skin of the dead body mostly were peeled. In the opinion of the Doctor there was evidence of ante-mortem burn injuries and death was caused due to burn and the body remained in the water for long period after her death. He further opined that time elapsed since death was between 5 to 6 days. He conducted the postmortem on 2.12.1988 and the body was recovered from a well on 1st of December, 1988.

7. The evidence of P.Ws. 3, 4, 9 and 10 are to the effect that Gita was burnt to death and her dead body was thrown in the well situated near the house of the acc