The testimony of eyewitnesses, when corroborated by medical evidence, can be sufficient to convict a person of murder, even if the accused raises an alibi defense.

1. - In this appeal the appellant has challenged the conviction and sentence awarded to him by the trial court vide its judgment & order dated 4.11.92 whereby he has been convicted for the offence under section 302 IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 100/-, in default further to undergo one month's R.I.

2. The prosecution case is that on 25.10.88, P.W. 1 Shivanand has given a written report to SHO police station Mangrol alleging therein that in between 9:50 to 10:20 a.m. while he has taking his food at his residence a student of Govt. Senior Higher Secondary School came to him and told that all the teachers are calling him, as Lalit Kumar brother-in-law (sister's husband) of Jai Prakash (deceased), has given knife blows to Jai Prakash a student of Class VI-B and Rameshwar & Pradeep of the same class have seen the incident. When he reached at school by that time Mohan Singh and Chetan Swaroop teachers of that school had already taken injured to the hospital. Then the informant also went to hospital, there he found that the boy Jai Prakash had expired. On that report FIR Ex.P-2 was registered. The inquest report Ex.P-3 of the dead body was prepared. Post mortem was got conducted. Post mortem report is Ex.P-11. During investigation the blood smeared soil and control soil was taken from the place of incident. The articles bushshirt, knicker, and Hawai Chappal of deceased were seized, sealed and sent to FSL. On examination in FSL Hawai Chappal, knife and soil were found stained with human blood. Accused was arrested on 18.6.90 vide arrest-memo Ex.P-13 and at his instance the knife was recovered, recovery memo is Ex.P-10. The statements under section 161 Cr.P.C. of different witnesses including Shivanand, Pradeep, Rameshwar, Nathu Lal, Vimla and Savitri were recorded. Thereafter the challan has been filed in the court of Judicial Magistrate (Mobile) Baran. The case has been committed for trial, to trial court. The trial court has framed charges. Accused denied the charges and claimed for trial During trial as many as 17 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. The statements of accused-appellant has been recorded under section 313 Cr.P.C. He also examined 9 witnesses in defence. He took the plea of alibi. Considering the material on record, the trial court came to the conclusion that prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that accused has committed murder of Jai Prakash on 25.10.88, and sentenced him as aforesaid.

3. Being dissatisfied with the judgment of trial court accused has preferred this appeal. This appeal was filed by Mr. R.P. Vijay, but subsequently he did not appear on behalf of appellant, therefore Mr. Jinesh Jain has been appointed Amicus Curiae.

4. Heard Amicus Curaie Mr. Jinesh Jain for the appellant, learned PP for the State and learned counsel for complainant. Shri Jain submitted that the only eyewitnesses are Pradeep (PW.l) and Rameshar (PW3) and they are child witnesses therefore no much reliance can be placed on their statements. Further there is no motive behind the incident, the accused has falsely been implicated, and P.W. 4 Nathu Lal, P.W. 9 Vimla & P.W. 10 Savitri are the interested witnesses and they are not reliable. On the contrary there is sufficient evidence that the accused was in Delhi at the time of incident, therefore, he has wrongly been convicted by the trial court. Learned PP Miss. Sumitra Goyal and Mr. R.P. Meena counsel for complainant have placed reliance on the judgment of trial court and submitted that the matter was reported just after the incident and the eye-witnesses are reliable witnesses. There is no justification to interfere in the judgment of trial court. It is also submitted that accused had been seen in Mangrol and he came to the house of deceased and threatened P.W. 4 Nathu Lail that he will face dire consequences, if he (P.W. 4) will send the wife of accused along with him.

5. The Ex.P-1 report has been given by P.W.