JUDGMENT :

Pradip Mohanty, J. - The appellant, who has been convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge, Rairangpur u/s 302 I.P.C. in S.T. Case No. 36/144 of 2000 and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life, has preferred this appeal from jail. The case of the prosecution, as narrated in the F.I.R. (Ext.1), is that on 16.03.2000 at about 5.30 PM, when the informant (P.W.1) was in his house, Sumitra Tiriya (P.W.3), the wife of the deceased, came and told him that the appellant committed murder of her husband by pounding his head with a stone. When he asked the reason for such assault, she told that on the previous day, i.e., on 15.03.2000, her husband and nephew Niranjan Tiriya had plucked some tamarind from their common tamarind tree and also cut some branches, which were creating obstacles in cultivation of their land. For this, the appellant being enraged had threatened to kill the deceased. On the date of occurrence, one Sunaram Tiriya told her that the appellant killed the deceased by giving stone blows. Hearing this, she went to the spot and with the help of others brought the deceased to house. She gave water to the deceased and on being asked the deceased told her that the