As per Hon'ble Shri Sunil Kumar Sinha, J.-

1. This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 6th of July, 2007 passed in Sessions Trial No. 270/2006 by the 8th Additional Sessions Judge (FTC), Bilaspur. By the impugned judgment, the appellant has been convicted u/s 302 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 300/- with default sentence of S.I. for 1 month.

2. The facts, briefly stated, are as under:-

Deceased- Sita Bai was wife of accused- Rajkumar (A-2). They were residing in a separate house. Appellant- Shankar Bareth (A-1) is father-in-law and Durpati Bai (A-3) is mother-in-law of the deceased. The deceased sustained burn injuries in the intervening night of 18th-19th of April, 2006. She was admitted in Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Science (CIMS), Bilaspur at about 4.00 a.m. on 19.4.2006. An information was sent to the concerned police outpost and a dying declaration of the deceased was recorded by the police on 19.4.2006. In dying declaration, the deceased had stated that she had put herself on fire on account of ill-treatment by the accused persons (A-1 to A-3). Later on, another dying declaration (Ex.-P/2) of the deceased was re