JUDGMENT :

L. Rath, J. - This is an appeal by a convict from jail having been convicted u/s 302 I.P.C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The Appellant had also been prosecuted u/s 27 of the Arms Act, but has been acquitted of the charge. It is the case of the prosecution that the Appellant and deceased Raghunath Mohapatra were neighbors, and that their Baris were adjoining each other. There were previous litigations between the parties for which they were in inimical terms. On the date of the occurrence, i.e. 14-2-1982 at 2.00 p.m. the deceased along with his wife P.W. 7 and daughter P.W. 1 was sitting in his Bari cleaning arum. The back of the deceased was to the South in which direction the house of the Appellant is situated. To the immediate north of the house of the deceased is the house of P.W. 2, his brother. In between the houses of the deceased and the Appellant there was an incomplete wall of about four feet high. P.Ws. 1 and 7 were sitting with the deceased cleaning the arum facing each other. While they were at the work, P.Ws. 1 and 7 heard a gun shot sound. They immediately looked up at the direction of the sound and found' the muzzle of a gun resting on the wan wi