( 1 ) THIS is an appeal by Dhahnoo Khan, who has been convicted by the learned Sessions Judge of rampur under Section 302 of the I. P. C. and has been sentenced to imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs. 100/ -.

( 2 ) THE facts giving rise to the incident briefly stated were these:

( 3 ) ON the 14th of December, 1951, the deceased went to the shop of one Tullan, who was a carpenter, about sunset time in village Kajriyee. As he went there he found several people sitting at that shop. The deceased asked as to where the Pradhan of the village was. Thereupon Tullan asked the deceased as to why he was enquiring for the Pradhan. In answer to this querry by tullan, the deceased replied that he wanted to meet the Pradhan for he wanted to complain to him against the actions of certain people who were driving carts through the ploughed fields and thereby causing damage. Dhannoo Khan the accused immediately said that the carts would be taken through the ploughed fields as they had been. This assertion by Dhannoo Khan led to an altercation between Dhannoo Khan, on the one hand, and Baddan alias Chet Ram the deceased, on the other. There was some scuffle also and according to the testimony of at least one eye-witness Baddan delivered a Danda blow on Dhannoo Khan. Those, who were sitting at that shop at the time, intervened and separated Dhannoo Khan and Baddan. During the course of the altercation the accused had whipped out a knife and attempted to make an attack on Baddan. He was thwarted by Nazeer Ahamd P. W. 6 who caught hold of Dhannoo Khan. Tullan thereupon asked Baddan to go away and Mohammad Jan P. W. 5 held down the accused by the hand. As Baddan was leaving Tullans shop he showered filthy abuses on Dhannoo Khan which apparently raised the temper of Dhannoo Khan further with the result that hardly Baddan had gone a hundred steps or so when Dhannoo Khan freed himself from the grip of Mohammad Jan and dashed out behind baddan. This made some of the witnesses follow Dhannoo Khan in an attempt to interfere with his intention to attack Baddan. None of the witnesses was, however, able to avert the tragedy that followed. Baddan was attacked with a knife and given two severe blows with it with the result that he collapsed and died on the sopt.

( 4 ) A report Of the incident was made at police station Kemri by Buddha Shah, the chowkidar, who turned up at the scene of occurrence hearing the noise and the hubbub that arose as a result of this untoward incident: the first information report was lodged at 11 p. m. on the 14th of december 1951. The police station was at a distance of seven miles from village Kajriyaee where the incident had taken place.

( 5 ) SULTAN Khan Station Officer went to the spot, prepared an inquest report and also drew a site plan. The body of Baddan was sent for postmortem examination.

( 6 ) A post-mortem was actually conducted on the body of the deceased on the 15th of December, 1951, at 12-30 p. m. On examination the body was found to have one punctured wound 1" x 1/2"x lung-deep on the right side scapula. The edges were clean-cut and the direction of the wound was horizontal forwards and downward into the lung. Another punctured wound 1 1/4 x 3/4" x 2" was found on the left side of the back 1" external to the 10th dorsal vertebra. The edges of this wound were also clean-cut. Severe damage was caused to the right lung with the result that the deceased died of syncope having been brought about by shock and haemorrhage.

( 7 ) THE accused could not be apprehended for he apparently absconded. Proceedings under sections 87 and 88 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were taken but they did not yield immediate fruit for the accused was actually arrested sometimes in 1954 and he was subsequently put up for trial.

( 8 ) THE defence of the accused was that he made the attack on the deceased with a knife in self-defence. The accused, however, produced no evidence in support of his contention and relied entirely on the