Per Dhirendra Mishra, J

The appellant has preferred this appeal against the judgment dated 29th June 2001 passed in Sessions Trial No.257/2000, whereby the learned Sessions Judge, Bilaspur after holding the accused/appellant guilty of causing homicidal death of Santoshi Bai, has convicted him under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life.

2. Briefly stated case of the prosecution is that husband of the deceased Ramkhilawan (PW-1) lodged First Information Report (Ex.P/9) in Police Station Pali, Distt. Korba at about 12.00 noon on 1.5.2000 mentioning therein that he and Santoshi Bai were married two years before the date of incident and 15 days before the incident he had taken Santoshi after Gouna. On 23.4.2000 he along with his wife Santoshi had gone to Navapara (Dhawaihapara). On 30.4.2000 his wife Santoshi complained of stomach-ache in the morning, then his mother-in-law told Santoshi that she is going along with Ramkhilawan to forest for bringing rope and after returning from forest they shall call the doctor and both of them proceeded to forest. His sister-in-law Nini went to the marriage function, his wife Santoshi remained alone in the h