The admissibility of the accused's statement to the police and a witness's statement recorded under Section 164, Cr.P.C. were crucial in determining the sufficiency of the evidence to establish the accused's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

I.A. Ansari, J.

1. By the judgment and order, dated 3-9-96, passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Dhemaji, in Sessions Case No. 29(DH)/1994, the appellant in this appeal, namely, Shri Arjun Biswas stands convicted under Section 302, IPC and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs. 2,000.00 and, in default of payment of fine, suffer rigorous imprisonment for a period of 1 (one) year.

2. The case against the accused-appellant, as projected at the trial, may, in brief, be stated as follows :

On 19-7-1992, at about 5.30 a.m., the accused-appellant, Arjun Biswas appeared at Dhemaji Police Station with a handleless blood stained dao in his hand and claimed that on that very day, i.e., on 19-7-1992, at about 4.30 to 5.00 a.m., he had done to death his sister-in-law, Smt. Krishna Biwas, by giving her blows with dao, for, he had suspected that she had killed his (i.e., the accused-appellant's) elder brother, Arun Biswas. The information so given by the appellant was reduced to writing in the form of Ext. 6 and treating the same as First Information Report, Dhemaji P.S. Case No. 127/92 under Section302, IPC was registered against the accused-appellant and the dao aforementioned was, vide seizure list (Ext.3) seized from the accused-appellant. On completion of the investigation, police laid charge-sheet against the accused-appellant under Section 302, IPC.

3. During trial, the accused-appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge framed against him under Section 302, IPC. As many as 11 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. The accused-appellant was, then, examined under Section 313, Cr.P.C. and in his examination aforementioned, he denied that he had committed the offence alleged to have been committed by him, the case of the defence being that of total denial. On conclusion of the trial, the learned trial Court found the accused-appellant guilty of the charge framed against him under Section 302, IPC. The accused-appellant was accordingly convicted and the sentence, as mentioned hereinabove, was passed against him. Hence, the present appeal.

4. We have perused the materials on record. We have heard Mrs. A. Begum, learned Amicus-curiae, and Mr. F. H. Laskar, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Assam.

5. In the present case, there is no eyewitness to the occurrence. The prosecution heavily relied on the statement allegedly made by the accused-appellant before the police at the time when he (accused-appellant) is claimed to have appeared at the Police Station with the said blood-stained dao in his hand, the seizure of the said dao and the previous statement (Ext. 5) of Smt. Reba Biswas, wife of the accused-appellant, recorded under Section 164, Cr.P.C.

6. Keeping in view the above aspects of the case, when we come to the evidence of PW8 (Dr. Hem Ch. Barua), we notice that according to the doctor, he had held the postmortem examination on the dead body of Krishna Biswas on 19-7-92 at 4.00 p.m. and found as follows :

(1) A female dead body of average built with rigor mortis present, tongue is protruded out, face blood-stained.

(2) There are 3 sharp cut wounds on occipital area sizes are about 3" in length, 1" in depth and 1" in breadth. Brain matters is seen. Wounds are oblique in direction right to left and downwards.

(3) There are two sharp cut wounds on right lateral side sizes 3" in length, 1/2" depth and 1/2" breadth. Transverse in directions and parallel to the midline and 2" x 1" oblique in direction right to left and above to downwards.

(4) There is a sharp cut wound size 2" x 1" x 1" in the upper part of the neck on right side just below the mandible cutting the carrotic artery and thyroid bone on right side.

There are haemorrhage and blood clot present in the brain membrane.

Brain is cut in different parts on the temporal and occipital area as per wounds described earlier.

Other organs are normal.

7. In the opinion of the doctor, the wounds were fresh and the same were ante-mortem in nature and that the death w