S.D.Anand, J.

1. Appellant Mukesh Kumar impugns the validity of his conviction, at the hands of the learned Trial Judge, on a charge under Section 302 IPC. The allegation is that, on being spurned by his lady love, the jilted lover in the appellant set her afire and also sustained burns in that process.

2. The deceased was wife of PW 2 Kamal Singh. The couple, along with their daughter were initially residing at Rohtak. From there, they shifted to village Patwapur. It is from there only that they shifted to village Sirhole where they occupied tenanted premises owned by PW 1 Amarjit Singh. Kamal Singh suspected that his wife (deceased Kanta) had illicit relations with appellant Mukesh Kumar. On the relevant date, PW 2 Kamal Singh was at his place of employment in Munzal Shora Factory at Gurgaon. Sometime, after about 5.30 PM, PW 1 Amarjeet Singh spotted deceased Kanta and also appellant Mukesh Kumar emerging out of the tenanted Chaubara while both of them were "in burnt condition". Appellant Mukesh jumped from the roof into the gallary on the ground floor. The fire on the person of Kanta was extinguished by PW 1 Amarjeet Singh "with the help of sand". Kamal Singh was summoned from his place of employment, through one Billu. On reaching home, Kamal Singh found that though the fire had been extinguished, there were burn injuries on the body of his wife Kanta and also that of appellant Mukesh Kumar. He took both of them to Sarswati Hospital, Gurgaon, from where they were referred to Medical College & Hospital, Rohtak where Kanta succumbed to the injuries on 26.7.1995.

3. The prosecution examined PW 1 Amarjeet Singh, (whose house was under the occupation of PW 2 Kamal Singh and his family), PW 2 Kamal Singh (husband of deceased Kanta/first informant), PW 3 Hazari (father of PW 2 Kamal Singh) to prove the essential charge against the appellant. PW 5 Constable Sharwan Kumar had prepared the scaled site plan Ex.PC of the place of occurrence on 10.8.1995. PW 6 ASI Bijender Singh, then posted at Police Station Sadar, Gurgaon, recorded formal FIR Ex.PE/1, on receipt of the ruqqa Ex.PE. PW 7 ASI Balbir Singh (then posted at Police Station, Dundahera) had partly investigated this case inasmuch as he had recorded the statements under Section 161 Cr.PC of Constable Zile Singh and Constable Surender Singh, PW 8 Constable Surender Singh, PW 9 Constable Zile Singh and PW 10 HC Ram Kumar tendered their affidavits, representing evidence of formal character, in to evidence. Their affidavits are Ex.PF, Ex.PG and Ex.PH respectively. PW 12 ASI Vidya Nand is the Investigating Officer of this case. PW 13 Inspector Ram Phal, then posted as SHO Police Station, Gurgaon, had filed the report under Section 173 Cr.PC in this case.

4. PW 4 Dr. R.P. Gupta, Medical Officer, Sarswati Hospital, Gurgaon, proved the hospitalisation of Kanta and Mukesh over there and also the fact that he sent intimation Ex.PB to the police with regard to their admission.

5. PW 11 Dr. Sushma Jain had conducted the post-mortem examination on the dead body of Mst. Kanta and had found the following injuries on her person :-

"1. Superficial to deep infacted burn was present all over the body except on sole of both feet and scalp.

2. Sinzing of scalps and pubic hair was present.

3. Red line of demarcation was present between healthy and burn area.

4. Soot particles was present intraches.

5. At places blebs was present.

6. Infected unhealthy granalation tissue was present in burn area."

She opined that "the cause of death of deceased was shock which was due to massive burns and its complications described above which were ante-mortem in nature and sufficient to cause death in natural course of nature."

6. Dr. Ganju was given up by the learned Public Prosecutor as unnecessary "because his address is not available as per report of the Constable."

7. Dr. Micheal Jisus, Medical Officer, Rohtak and Dr. V.S. Wedh were given up by the learned Public Prosecutor with the following statemen