JUDGMENT :

RAMESH SINHA, J.

1. This criminal appeal filed by the appellant-accused under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short the Cr.P.C.) is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 18.09.2014, passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Korba, in Sessions Trial No. 45/2013, whereby the appellant-accused has been convicted for offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short, the I.P.C.) and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further 6 months additional rigorous imprisonment.

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that 8-9 years prior to the date of incident, the appellant had married with the deceased namely Nanbai and were residing at Sanjay Nagar, Korba. On the date of incident i.e. 22.02.2013, both of them had an altercation as the appellant used to doubt the character of his wife and threatened her that he would burn her alive. Being scared, the deceased went in her room and lied on the cot. At that time, the appellant came and poured kerosene on her and set her on fire. The deceased came out of the room screaming for help and fell on the ground.

3. The matter was reported to the police upon which the police reached the place of incident and took the injured Nanbai to the Hospital. Dehati Nalishi (Exhibit P/16) was recorded by Police Sub Inspector, Arun Kumar Sahu bearing Crime No. 0/2013 under Section 307 IPC on 22.02.2013 at 02:00 p.m. at the place of incident i.e. house of the accused and the deceased at Sanjay Nagar, Korba. The deceased informed the IO that she was residing with the accused for the last 8-9 years as his wife and she does the labour work. On the date of incident, at about 1:00 p.m., the accused started quarrelling with the deceased on some old dispute and stated that today he will not spare her and would kill her. She got scared and went to her room and lied on the cot. At that time, the accused came ad poured kerosene on her and burnt her with a match stick. When she screamed for help and went outside the house, at that time, Rizwan and other people of the area came and they saw that her husband i.e. the accused had tried to kill her.

4. Thereafter, on the basis of Dehati Nalishi (Exhibit P/16), Arun Kumar Sahu who is the Investigating Officer (for short, the I.O.) registered the FIR bearing Crime No. 140/2013 on the same day at 20:00 hours under Section 307 of the IPC.

5. The deceased was taken to the Indira Gandhi District Hospital, Korba, where she was admitted and during the course of treatment, she succumbed to the burn injuries sustained by her on the same day i.e. 22.02.2013 at 9:35 pm. On the basis of information (Exhibit P/12) given by Dr. Ghanshyam Diwan (PW/7), merg intimation (Exhibit P/18) was recorded by the I.O. on 23.02.2023 at 6:30 a.m. The body was sent for postmortem and the postmortem was conducted by Dr. O.S. Kanwar (PW/8) who prepared the postmortem report (Exhibit P/13).

6. After investigating the matter, the police submitted the police report alongwith charge-sheet against the Accused under section 302 IPC before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Korba who in turn committed the case to the Session Court for trial and was registered as Sessions Trial No. 45/2013

7. The learned Sessions Judge framed charge on 16.07.2013 charging the appellant/accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC.

8. Amongst others, the prosecution has filed the following documents in support of its case:

(i) Dying declaration and information under Section 155 of Cr.P.C. (Exhibit P/1)

(ii) Duty Certificate (Exhibit P/2)

(iii) Nazri Naksha (Exhibit P/3)

(iv) Summons under Section 175 of Cr.P.C. (Exhibit P/4A and P/4)

(v) Inquest report (Exhibit P/5)

(vi) Statement of Jamila Bai (Exhibit P/6)

(vii) Statement of Muskan (Exhibit P/7)

(viii) Property seizure memo (Exhibit P/8)

(ix) Panchnama (Exhibit P/9)

(x) Statement of Ali Khan (Exhibit P/10)

(xi) Sta