PRADEEP NANDRAJOG, J.

(1) The appellant has been convicted for the offence of having murdered his wife.

(2) At the hearing of the appeal, the learned counsel for the appellant did not dispute that the wife of the appellant was brutally murdered in her matrimonial house in the intervening night of 30th and 31st March 1997; the fact that she was murdered is evidenced by the post-mortem report Ex.PW-10/A as per which the deceased had received 8 injuries, of which, injury No. 1 was caused by a hard blunt force and the remaining were caused by a sharp edged weapon. Further, it was not disputed by learned counsel for the appellant that the deceased died due to injury No.4 which had cut the neck of the deceased and that the said injury by itself was sufficient in the ordinary course to cause death. It was further admitted that there is no evidence of any forced entry into the house or of the presence of any other family member in the house when the wife of the appellant was murdered.

To put it pithily, the contentions urged by learned counsel for the appellant centered on the issue: Whether from the evidence on record a finding of guilt could be returned against the appellant?

(3)