A.C. RAO, J.

1. The appellant -original accused No.1 has preferred this Criminal Appeal under section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure challenging the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the 6th (Ad-hoc) Additional Sessions Judge, Panchmahals at Godhara in Sessions Case No.59 of 2016 dated 16/11/2018, by which the Sessions Judge convicted the appellant -original accused No.1 for the offence punishable under sections 302 read with section 201 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and under section 135 of Gujarat Police Act.

While convicting the appellant accused No.1, the trial court imposed the following sentence :-

For the offence punishable under section 302 of Indian Penal Code, the Sessions Judge sentenced the appellant - accused No.1 to undergo life imprisonment with fine of Rs.5,000/- and in default to make payment of fine, directed to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.

For the offence punishable under section 201 of Indian Penal Code, the Sessions Judge sentenced the appellant - accused No.1 to undergo imprisonment for a period of five years with fine of Rs.2,000/- and in default to make payment of fine, directed to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months.

For the offence punishable under section 135 of Gujarat Police Act, the Sessions Judge sentenced the appellant - accused No.1 to undergo imprisonment for a period of two years with fine of Rs.500/- and in default to make payment of fine, directed to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months.

The Sessions Judge also granted benefit of set off as per section 428 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

2. Case of the prosecution :-

The complainant found the dead-body of the deceased - his brother lying in the field near an electric poll at the outskirts of the village. He accordingly informed the police. The postmortem revealed that the deceased died due to internal head injury. It is pertinent to note that before the incident, the deceased had informed the complainant -his brother that his mobile was missing. On inquiry, the appellant is alleged to have confessed before the complainant that he had an altercation with the deceased as regards mobile. The deceased had slapped the appellant on his face and therefore, the appellant got provoked and in the heat of moment, hit one blow with a wooden log on the head of the deceased. The deceased succumbed to the injuries. The appellant herein with the aid of the accused No.2 threw away the dead-body of the deceased somewhere at the outskirts of the village. The FIR being CR No.90 of 2016 came to be registered with the Morvah(H) Police Station for the offence punishable under section 302 read with section 114 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 135 of Gujarat Police Act.

2.01. Thereafter, during the course of the investigation, the investigating officer arrested the accused, recorded statements of the witnesses, prepared inquest punchnama, got postmortem report of the deceased, prepared panchnama of the place of offence and carried out other investigation. After completion of investigation, the investigating officer filed charge-sheet under section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the competent court of the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class Morvah(H) for the offence punishable under sections 302, 201 read with section 114 of IPC and under section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act, and the case was registered as Criminal Case No.134 of 2016.

2.02. Since the case was triable by the Court of Sessions, the Judicial Magistrate after providing copies of the Charge-sheet papers to the accused, committed the case to the Sessions Court under section 209 of the Cr.P.C. and the case was re-registered as Sessions Case No.59 of 2016 in the Court of Sessions Judge Panchmahals at Godhara.

2.03. The Sessions Court framed Charge against t