JUDGMENT :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J

1. This criminal appeal under Section 374(2) of the CrPC preferred by the appellant-accused is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 26.12.2014 passed by the learned Third Additional Sessions Judge, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh in Sessions Trial No. 42/2014 by which appellant has been convicted for offences under Sections 302 & 364 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay fine of Rs.1000/-; in default of payment of fine additional rigorous imprisonment for three months and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and pay fine of Rs.1000/-; in default of payment of fine additional rigorous imprisonment for three months, respectively. Both sentences were directed to run concurrently.

2. Case of the prosecution, in nutshell, is that appellant is the aunt (Mousi) of Pratigya, who was aged about 3 years, and on 16.01.2014 at about 10:00 am, at village Sarwani Arpa Nadi, Police Station Chakarbhatha, District Bilaspur, (C.G.), appellant took minor Pratigya (hereinafter referred to as the deceased), who was aged about 3 years at the time of incident, with her without informing her parents and killed her by drowning and thereby, committed the aforesaid offence.

3. It is further case of the prosecution that on 15.01.2014, appellant came to the house of complainant Panchram Sonwani (PW-16). On the date of offence i.e. 16.01.2014, complainant Panchram Sonwani (PW-16) was not at home as Chherichhera festival was being celebrated on that day and Shashi (PW-15), mother of the deceased, and Meena Bai (PW-1), grandmother of the deceased, were cooking food at home, and Satya Prakash (PW-14), brother of the deceased, was playing outside near cart (thela) along with his sister deceased Pratigya. When Meena Bai (PW-1) called the children to have food, then Satya Prakash (PW 14) replied that appellant took deceased with herself. On search, appellant was found at village Magaruchhla and on being asked about the deceased, she told that she did not take the deceased with her. On 17.01.2014, dead body of the deceased was found in the Arpa river. Uttara Kumar Raj (PW-10) informed about the dead body of the deceased to Police Station Chakarbhatha. Dehati Merg Intimation was registered vide Ex.P/9. FIR was registered vide Ex.P/15. During interrogation, it came to the knowledge of Police that when Panchram Sonwani (PW-16) had gone to Gujarat with his wife Shashi (PW-15) and children Satya Prakash (PW-14) and Pratigya (now deceased) to earn livelihood and had also taken appellant with him to look after the deceased, a contractor had given Rs.17,000/- which she took and came back to village. Said contractor in search of the appellant came to village and asked Rs.17,000/- on account of which she became angry and caused the death of the deceased. Appellant was arrested vide Arrest/Court Surrender Memo (Ex.P/4). Inquest proceedings (Ex.P/2) were conducted and the dead body of the deceased was sent for postmortem. As per postmortem report (Ex.P/13) conducted by Dr. S.S. Gupta (PW-13), cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning.

4. After due investigation, appellant was charge-sheeted for the aforesaid offences and the case was committed to the Court of Sessions for trial in accordance with law. The appellant/accused abjured his guilt and entered into defence.

5. In order to bring home the offences, prosecution has examined as many as 20 witnesses and exhibited 16 documents and defence in support of its case has not examined any witness, but exhibited two documents (Exs.D/1 & D/2).

6. The learned trial Court after appreciating the oral and documentary evidence available on record, convicted the appellant/accused for the offences as mentioned in the opening paragraph of the judgment, against which this appeal has been preferred questioning the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence.

7. Mr. Vivek Kumar Shrivastava, learned counsel for the appellant,