This criminal appeal has been pre ferred against the judgment and order dated 20. 07. 2007 passed by the then Sessions Judge, Pithoragarh in S. T. No. 55/2005, whereby the accused/ap pellant was convicted and sentenced to undergo R. I. for a period of five years and a fine of Rs. 10, 000/- under Sec tion 304 IPC. It was further directed that in default of payment of fine, the ac cused/appellant would further undergo imprisonment for one year.

2. Brief facts of the prosecution case are that on 27. 09. 2005 the first infor mation report was submitted by Devendra Singh Pangati PW3 before the District Magistrate, Pithoragarh alleging therein that on 11. 09. 2005, his brother Pratiman Singh Pangati had gone to see the fair of "nanda-Ashtami" in village Suring, but he did not return till night. In the morning of 12. 09. 2005, he has received information that his brother was lying dead under suspicious condi tion in village Suring. On the basis of the aforesaid report, a Chick FIR was prepared and necessary entries were made in the general diary. The police vis ited the spot and sent the dead body for postmortem. The Investigating Officer prepared the site plan and recorded the statement of the witnesses. After com pleting the investigation, the Investigat ing Officer submitted the chargesheet before the court.

3. After submission of chargesheet the accused/appellant was committed to the Court of Sessions for trial and the trial court framed charges against the accused person. The accused person denied charges levelled against him and claimed the trial.

4. The prosecution in order to sup port its case examined as many as eight witnesses. Navin Singh PW1 alongwith the deceased went to see the festival of "nanda-Ashtami". He is the witness to the effect that the deceased was lastly seen alive in the company of the ac cused/appellant in the late hours of 11. 09. 2005. Navin Singh PW1 is also the witness before whom the accused/appellant made an extra- judicial confes sion. Dr. Anil Kumar Garg PW2 is the Medical Officer, who conducted the post mortem on the dead body of the de ceased. Devendra Singh Pangati PW3, brother of the deceased is the inform ant of the case. Laxman Singh Pangati PW4 is the witness in whose presence the recovery of one shoe, one black pant and one violet of the deceased were made from the place of the incident. Constable Kishan Singh PW5 and S. I. Kundan Singh PW6 are the formal wit nesses of the police. PW7 is the Judi cial Magistrate before whom the state ment of the accused/appellant was re corded under section 164 Cr. P. C. Pratap Singh Chauhan PW8 is the In vestigating Officer of this case and af ter completing the investigation he sub mitted the chargesheet against the ac cused/appellant.

5. In the statement recorded u/s 313 Cr. P. C. the accused persons had denied the prosecution case and stated that he has been falsely implicated in this case. The accused/appellant has also adduced the evidence of Bhupal Singh DW1 in support of his defence.

6. The learned trial court after ap praisal of the evidence on record, con victed and sentenced the accused/appel lant as mentioned above.

7. I have heard Mrs. Pushpa Joshi, learned counsel for the accused/appel lant; Mr. Amit Bhatt, Addl. G. A. for the respondent/state and perused the evi dence on record.

8. At the outset, it needs to be mentioned that it is not disputed that the de ceased Pratiman Singh Pangti died on account of the injuries sustained by him on 11/09/2005 at about 9:00 or 9:30 p. m. at the spot as pointed out by the prosecution. The prosecution in support of its case adduced the evidence of Dr. Anil Kumar Garg PW2 who has stated in his evidence that he conducted the autopsy on the body of the deceased on 13/09/2005 at 5:15 p. m. and found the following injuries on the person of the deceased :

1. Lacerated wound right supra or bital region about 5 x 1cm.

2. Fracture mandible (angle) It. Side.

3. Abrasion 10 cm. x 10 cm. present in left lower part of che

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