Sunil Kumar Sinha, J.

[1] These appeals are directed against the judgment dated 31-1-2009 passed in Sessions Trial No. 5/2008 by the First Additional Session Judge, Baloda Bazar, District Raipur (C.G.). By the impugned judgment, the appellants have been convicted u/S. 302/34, IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 500/- with default sentence of R.I. for 2 months. The facts, briefly stated, are as under:--

Deceased- Sangeeta, aged about 25 years, was a deserted lady. She was residing with her father, Sriram Verma (PW-1) in village Latuwa. The dead body of the deceased was seen by the villagers in the bayara (badi) of accused - Khamhan Singh on 23-10-2007. It was in highly burnt condition. Babulal (PW-12- village Kotwar) lodged the merg intimation (Ex. P/19). The Investigation Officer reached to the place of occurrence, gave notice (Ex. P/1) to the Panchas and prepared inquest (Ex. P/2) on the dead body of the deceased. The dead body was identified by Shriram Verma (PW-1). It was sent for postmortem to Govt. Hospital, Baloda Bazar vide requisition Ex P/20-A. The post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr. Pramod Kumar Tiwari (PW-13) who pr