Hon’ble Imtiyaz Murtaza, J.—Challenge in this appeal which has been preferred from Jail by the appellant is to the judgment and order dated 21.12.2006 rendered by Special Judge SC/ST Act Agra in ST No 636 of 1995 whereby the appellant has been convicted for offences under Sections 302/376 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life on both counts and a fine of Rs 5000/- on each counts with default stipulation of six months RI for each count. The appellant was acquitted of charges under Section 3 (2) (5) of the SC/ST Act.

2. The deceased is a tiny girl namely, Renu aged about 5 years who it was alleged by the complainant Bhagwan Das, was murdered after being ravished and her body was found in a field. The incident relates to village Jatav Garhi Jahan Singh PS Shamshabad District Agra. Initially, the report was lodged against unknown person in case crime No 165 of 1991. It would appear that a second report was lodged at the police station the same day by Devendra son of Bhagwan Das in which it was imputed that her niece was ravished and murdered by accused Munna son of Mohan Singh Thakur in the field of Kapoor Singh. It was explained that the incident was seen by Kalicharan, Haridas Udai Singh and Kunwar Pal of the same village but his father Bhagwan Das gave the half baked report at the police station as he was unnerved due to incident.

3. The investigation of the crime was taken over by the Station officer Shamshabad namely Rajpal Singh. After completing investigation, the investigating officer submitted charge-sheet in the Court. The case was committed to the Court of Sessions by the CJM Agra on 25.8.1995.

4. The prosecution in order to prop up its case examined in all seven witnesses out of whom Bhagwan Das has been examined as PW 1, Devendra as PW 2, Kunwar Pal as PW 3, Haridas as PW4, Dr K.M.Goyal as PW 5, Rajpal Singh SO as PW6 and Ram Kumar Verma, Pharmacist as PW 7.

5. The case of the defence was one of denial attended with the version that on the day of occurrence, he was busy harvesting his Laha crop and while harvesting Laha crop, his neck and his male organ was hurt by the stump of Laha; that when he heard of body having been recovered, he had also gone to see the body like other village persons; that after two days of the occurrence, he was falsely nominated in the case on account of village factitious politics.. However, he did not adduce any evidence in support of his version.

6. The Sessions Judge relying upon the prosecution evidence, recorded verdict of conviction against the appellants as aforesaid and hence this Appeal.

7. Since the appellant was unrepresented in this Court, Sri R.S. Maurya was appointed as Amicus Curiae. We have heard at length the learned counsel for the appellant and also Sri Vimlendu Tripathi, AGA.

Learned counsel for the appellant made onslaught on the prosecution case contending that the evidence produced in the case is not adequate and convincing to warrant the conviction. He also challenged the findings recorded by the trial Court submitting that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case attended with submission that in the initial report, the crime was said to have been committed by unknown assailant and it was in the second report that the appellant was nominated due to prevailing faction in the village. It was also contended that no one saw the incident and the testimonies of the witnesses are discrepant with each other and that the evidence of seeing the appellant fleeing from the field from where the body of deceased was recovered is not at all trustworthy as the police concocted the entire version in order to prop up its failing case. Lastly it was argued that the sentence awarded in the facts and circumstances of the case errs on the side of severity.

8. Per contra, learned AGA has canvassed for the correctness of the view taken by the trial judge attended with the submission that sufficient evidence was adduced by the prosecution and the Sessions Judge rig