(Delivered by Hon.Chandra Dhari Singh,J.)

1. Heard Ms. Somya Chaturvedi, learned Amicus Curiae for the appellant and Sri B.A. Khan, learned Additional Government Advocate for the State.

2. This Jail Appeal has been filed against the judgment and order dated 3.4.2002 passed by the Special Judge (NDPS Act), Kanpur Nagar in S.T. no.685 of 2000, whereby the appellant was convicted for offence punishable under Sections 302 and 201 I.P.C. and for offence under Section 25 Arms Act. He was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life for offence punishable under Section 302 I.P.C. He was further sentenced to undergo R.I. for one year under Section 201 I.P.C.. He was sentenced to undergo R.I. for six months for the offence punishable under Section 25 Arms Act. All the sentences shall run concurrently.

3. Before dealing with points raised in this appeal, it is necessary to set out very briefly relevant facts of which prosecution case against the appellant substantially rest. The incident which has given rise to the present criminal proceedings took place on 22.10.1999 at about 12.00 O' clock (noon), at the house of the informant situated at Om Nagar, Darshan Purwa, P.S. Fazalganj, Kanpur Nagar.

The appellant was having illicit relation with deceased i.e. Smt. Usha Devi for more than two years from the date of occurrence. P.W.1 Ramesh Chandra, husband of the deceased persuaded his wife to abandon the illicit relation with the accused/appellant and lead a moral life. It is stated that on this persuasion, the deceased began to lead a moral life after abandoning the relations with the appellant. On the date of the incident, Ramesh Chandra Bharti, P.W.1 had gone to attend his duty at the office of Nagar Palika and their youngest daughter Priyanka (P.W.5) was at home. The accused armed with a knife entered into the house of the deceased and inflicted injuries on the body of the deceased. At the time of the incident, P.W.5,Priyanka was present on the site and started crying. The P.W.5, Priyanka went to the house of P.W.3, Km. Geeta and P.W.4 Km.Sonam and informed them that the appellant was inflicting her mother by knife. Both of them reached to the spot and saw the incident. The accused/appellant while threatening, fled away from the scene of the occurrence.

4. As per the prosecution case, Kusum w/o Lalaram and Shyama w/o Sewalal also arrived there and they also saw the accused/appellant was going out from the house of the deceased in blood stained clothes and with blood stained knife. Chandra Prakash, P.W.2, Preeti and Roshni had also witnessed the accused, going out from the house of the deceased. Ramesh Chandra (P.W.1) husband of the deceased came to his house in the day hours to take his lunch and he was informed about the incident. He saw that his wife was murdered and her deadbody was lying in the pool of blood. He prepared the F.I.R. (Ex.Ka-1) which was registered as Case Crime No.249 of 1999, under Section 302 I.P.C. at Police Station Fazalganj, District Kanpur Nagar. The distance from the place of occurrence and police station is only one kilometer.

5. S.I. Jai Shankear Pandey, P.W.9 was entrusted with the investigation. He visited the place of occurrence and prepared the inquest report. He took blood stained soil and plain soil from the place of occurrence. He recovered blood stained knife from the possession of the appellant and sent the deadbody to the mortuary for post mortem. The post moretm was performed by Dr. J. C. Harsh, P.W.8 who noted 9 incised wounds on the body of the deceased. He also noted the cause of death due to hemorrhage and shock by ante mortem injuries and prepared the post mortem report Ex.Ka-5. P.W.9 S.I. Jai Shanker Pandey recorded the statements of the prosecution witnesses and after completing the investigation, submitted a chargesheet (Ex.Ka-17 & Ka-18) against the appellant. Case of the prosecution was sought to be established by the testimony of nine witnesses and 18 Exhibits of the material wit