JUDGMENT :

1. This criminal appeal preferred by the appellants under Section 374 (2) of Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 15.02.2002, passed by Second Additional Sessions Judge, Balodabazar, District Raipur in Sessions Trial No. 182/2001 whereby the appellants have been convicted for offences punishable under Sections 304(b) & 34 IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and to pay fine of Rs. 1000/- each with default stipulations.

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that the deceased was married to appellant No.1 as per their custom in the month of Baisakh, 2000. After marriage, the deceased was residing with appellant No.1 in her in-law house at Bilaigarh. The appellants were harassing the deceased in the name of dowry and torturing her by saying that she was working with one hand. It is alleged that when she became ill, the treatment of the victim/deceased was done by her parents at Bilaigarh and thereafter she returned back to Kera in her matrimonial house and on the next date, the information of death of the deceased was given to her parents. It is further alleged that the family members of the deceased had gone to Bilaigarh where they saw mark of injuries on the face and neck of the deceased. It is further alleged that parents of deceased had tried to stop cremation and also searched Narshing, who was their relative but he was not found at Bilaigarh. When Narshing returned to Bilaigarh then the deceased brother contacted him and incident was reported to police Station Bilaigarh on 18.02.2001 vide Annexure P/1. On the basis of report, merg was recorded in the Police Station Bilaigarh as Ex.P-5. The police has taken some portion of the deceased in their custody and recorded the statement of witnesses and registered the Crime No. 45 of 2001 under Section 304(B) read with Section 34 IPC. The prosecution has sent the bone and ash of the deceased for examination at Forensic Science Laboratory at Sagar. The prosecution after usual investigation has submitted the charge sheet before the concerning Judicial Magistrate First Class- Balodabazar, who has committed the case to the Sessions Judge, Raipur and subsequently the matter was transferred to Second Additional Judge, Balodabazar for trial.

3. In order to bring home the guilt of appellants, the prosecution has examined as many as 11 witnesses namely- Lomash Kumar (PW-1), Uma Shankar (PW-2), Narshing (PW-3), Gugaru (PW-4), Smt. Bimla Bai (PW-5), I.O. L.D. Diwan (PW-6), Bund Kunwar (PW- 7), Gourishankar (PW-8), Natthuram Dewangan (PW-9), Dr. K.K. Gandharv (PW-10), SDO Sujit Kumar (PW-11), and head constable S.L. Sahu (PW-6). The prosecution to prove the guilt of the appellant has exhibited the documents report (Ex.P-1), enquiry of merg (Ex.P- 2A), list of witnesses (Ex.P-2), Panchayatnama (Ex.P-3), Merg report (Ex.P-3A), seizure memo (Ex.P-4), merg intimation (Ex.P-5), FIR dated 01.03.2001 (Ex.P-6), application for postmortem with report (Ex.P-7), opinion of the doctor (Ex.P-7A), crime detail form (Ex.P-8), arrest memo (Ex.P-8 to Ex.P-10), statement of Gourishankar (Ex.P- 9), memo dated 15.03.2001 sent to Forensic Science at Sagar (Ex.P- 11). Statements of accused/appellants were recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C., in which they denied the allegation leveled against them and pleaded innocence and false implication. Apart from this, three defence witnesses have been examined namely Budheshwar Prasad (DW-1), Guraruram (Ex.D-2), Kamlabai (Ex.D-3) and Smt.Bund Kunwar (Ex.D-4) have also been examined.

4. Lomash Kumar (PW-1) was examined before the trial Court wherein he has stated that as soon as they received the information about death of Kamlabai, they had gone to accused house at Bilaigarh by a jeep. He saw that the accused persons had already initiated step for cremation and after seeing face of his sister, he noticed the scratches marks in the neck and other parts of the body. He was made an attempt