BEHERA, J.

( 1 ) THE appellant stood his trial being charged under Section 302 of the Indian State Penal Code (the Code, for short) with having intentionally and knowingly caused the death of Jogi Behera (hereinafter referred to as the deceased) and a co-accused person, namely, Govinda Behera, stood charged under Section 323 of the Code for causing hurt to Maheshwar Behera (P. W. 1 ). The co-accused person was acquitted of the charge. The appellant was acquitted of the charge of murder and convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304, Part I of the Code and sentenced thereunder to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of four years by the Court of Sessions, after acceptance of the case of the prosecution, not only on the basis of the evidence adduced by it but also from the admission made by the appellant, that on October 19, 1978, in the evening time, the appellant, then in his teens, dealt one blow by means of a lathi (M. O. I.) after a sudden quarrel and on the spur of the moment on the chest of the deceased which caused fracture of a rib, the fractured rib causing rupture of the spleen resulting in the death of the deceased. The learned trial