This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 12.6.2001 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Kamrup in Sessions Case No. 100(K) of 1997, convicting the appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- in default to suffer R.I. for another three months.

2. We have heard Mr J.M. Choudhury, senior advocate assisted by Mr B.M. Choudhury, advocate for the appellant and Mr P. Gayan, PP, Assam.

3. The case of the prosecution in short is that on 12.11.96, one Anita Das, PW-2, lodged an FIR with the Officer-in-Charge, Hajo Police Station alleging that on 10.11.96 at about 10.30 p.m. the accused appellant and two others (named therein) came to the gate of their house, armed with iron rods, with a view to kill the members of her family out of previous grudge over a pending litigation involving land. They abused the inmates of the house in filthy language, at the same time loudly striking the boundary wall of the house/On hearing this, the elder brother of the informant, Dakshya Raj Kumar came out of the house and asked them to stop the nuisance, whereupon the accused appellant