JUDGMENT

L. MOHAPATRA, J. — Judgment of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bolangir, in Sessions Case No. 130/B of 1996-97 convicting the appellant under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentencing him to undergo R.I. for life is impugned in this Criminal Appeal.

2. Case of the prosecution is that the appellant was working as an Assistant Driver in the Indian Railways and at the time of occurrence he was posted at Bolangir. About one and half months prior to the date of occurrence the appellant had taken a house on rent near the Railway Station Road belonging to the informant (P.W.1) and he was staying in the said rented house with his wife M. Jayalaxmi (deceased) and two small children. In the evening of 20.8.1996 the deceased was seen alive by the informant and his wife (P.W.2). The informant's family was staying nearby. On 21.8.1996 till 11 a.m., wife of the informant (P.W.2) did not see the deceased and she intimated the said fact to the informant (P.W.1). Though the informant did not give much empha¬sis on this information,however, at about 1.30 p.m. P.W.2 discov¬ered that the back door of the rented house of the appellant had been closed from inside and blood was seeping out under