The main legal point established in the judgment is the reliance on circumstantial evidence, including the circumstances of last seen together, recovery and identification of the weapon of offence, medical report, conduct of the accused after the incident, extra-judicial confession, and the motive of the crime, to establish the guilt of the accused.

( 1 ) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 30th september, 2004 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, South and West at Namchi convicting the accused-appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 10. 000/-

( 2 ) THE facts of the case as set out in the prosecution story brings to light a sad and shocking incident of a son (accused-appellant) killing his own father (deceased) in a small village called 'malbasay' in West sikkim. The backdrop against which the whole tragic episode took place is as follows : the deceased Tika Ram Karki was a resident of a small village in West Sikkim called 'malbasay'. He was born and brought up in the same village and was living there with his family. He had married three wives and at the relevant time he had twelve sons and three daughters. All the sons and daughters, except the accused-appellant Yogesh karki, the youngest of the sons from Smt. Bal Kumari Karki, the second wife of the deceased, had been married. The deceased owned two plots of land one dry field measuring 2. 2180 hectares at malbasay Busty and one paddy field measuring. 5560 hectares at Suntaley Busty. While the dry field was partitioned amongst the twelve sons, the paddy field was retained by the deceased and his two surviving wives as "jiwani land" for their maintenance during their life time. However, sometime in the month of January, 2003 the deceased sold away the "jiwani land" to one Saran-Singh chettri (P. W. 7) of the same village for Rs. 2,02,000/ -. Out of this consideration money, the deeased had already received an advance ' payment of Rs. 1,72,000/- from the purchaser and the sale deed executed between them was going to be registered on 1st October, 2003 in the office of the SDM, Soreng. Since the deceased had not given any share to his second wife Smt. Bal Kumari Karki, from the advance money so recceived by him she had filed an objection against the registration of the sale deed through the local panchayat. The accused appellant was bitterly disappointed at the exclusion of his mother Smt. Bal Kumari Karki from her share of the Sale proceeds of the "jiwani land" and was contemplating ways and means to stop the registration of the sale deed. The only course of action he came to decide finally, to stop the impending registration of the sale deed was to eliminate his father before the date fixed for registration of the sale deed. The accused appellant got such opportunity when the deceased in the early morning of 28th September, 2003 left for the house of the Blacksmith Kharga bahadur at Mangasari Tarpu for the purpose of tempering and sharpening cutting weapons. Thus when his father left for the place of the Blacksmith at Mangsari Tarpu, he followed him and kept waiting at a place ' called "halley Khola" at Mangsari for his father to return. When the deceased reached that place at around 14-40 hrs. on his way back from the Blacksmith's place the accused appellant joined him and both of them headed for their house in Malbasay taking a short cut route. When they passed Bhu khola one Ms. Rojeela Tamang (P. W. 2) and mani Kumar Rai (P. W. 11) who were washing their vehicle saw the deceased and the accused appellant proceeding towards their residence along the short-cut route. According to them, the accused-appellant was carrying one naked Khukuri in his hand. Some 15-20 minutes after they passed, the accused-appellant hurriedly rushed back along the same route, and on reaching the place where P. W. 2 and P. W. 11 were still busy washing their vehicle, he (accused appellant) blurted out to them that he had finished off his father and since they were the only persons who had earlier seen him passing through that route with his father, they should not divulge the matter to anybody, and if they did so, they will face dire consequences. Thereafter, he headed for his house. On reaching home at around 16-00