(Delivered by Hon'ble Harsh Kumar J.)

Heard Sri Rakesh Kumar Singh, Sri S.K. Tiwari advocates for the appellant and Sri A.N. Mullah, Sri Phool Singh Yadav, learned AGA for State and perused the record as well as original record summoned from court below.

2. This appeal has been filed against the judgment and order of conviction and sentence dated 10.08.1983 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Hamirpur in S.T. No. 178 of 1982 arising out of Case Crime No. 70 of 1982 under Section 302 IPC, Police Station- Mahoba, District- Hamirpur by which learned Additional Sessions Judge has convicted the sole accused-appellant under Section 302 IPC for causing death of his wife and sentenced him with imprisonment for life.

3. The brief facts related to the case are, that on 12.03.1982 upon the written report of accused-appellant Maiyadin which will be referred as Tehrir hereinafter, a FIR was lodged at Case Crime No. 70 of 1982 against the accused-appellant under Section 302 IPC at Police Station- Mahoba, District, Hamirpur.

4. The averments of written report (Tehrir) are as follows : "Sriman Kotwal Sahab, Mahoba, on the last night at about 10 p.m. I have committed murder of my wife inside my house by cutting her with axe. I was having doubt on her illicit relationship with Rajju s/o Ram Charan Basor of the village and for this reason I caused her death because she had gone to attend the call of nature at night and since returned after inordinate delay, I committed her death. When I gave axe blows to her, she caught hold of my neck resulting in nail injuries over my neck. I can get the axe and body of my wife recovered which are lying on the spot. Appropriate steps be taken." Applicant Maiyadin, Scribe Baijnath Chaurasia."

5. Upon lodging of FIR, on the basis of written report, at Case Crime No. 70 of 1982, under Section 302 IPC, Investigating Officer visited the place of occurrence with accused and recovered the dead body of his wife and a small bloodstained axe with handle, the weapon of crime, of which memo of recovery Ext. A-2 was prepared. The Investigating Officer also collected sample of bloodstained and simple earth & BAN of Cot (pkjikbZ ds cku) as well as bloodstained clothes etc. of deceased Shyam Bai, prepared memos of recovery, got the accused medically examined at Government Hospital Mahoba, prepared inquest report, sent the dead body for autopsy and after making necessary enquiry and collecting the post mortem report of the deceased, injury report of accused, as well as report from Forensic Lab, completed the investigation and submitted chargesheet against the accused-appellant under Section 302 IPC.

6. The Magistrate committed the case to Sessions and the Additional Sessions Judge after hearing the counsel for accused-appellant framed charges against him under Section 302 IPC on 5.02.1983. The accused-appellant pleaded not guilty and demanded trial.

7. The prosecution in order to prove its case produced Baijnath, Purshottam Das, Rameshwar, Dr. Ghan Shyam Pandey, Phool Singh, Shyam Sundar, Tulsiya, V.K. Singh and Asharam Tripathi as PW1 to PW9. PW1 Baijnath is scribe of the written report (Tehrir) on the basis of which FIR has been lodged, PW2 Purshottam Das is village Pradhan, PW3 Rameshwar and PW5 Phool Singh are witnesses of recovery memos recovering dead body of deceased, as well as weapon of crime, bloodstained and simple earth, BAN, clothes and various other items/articles., PW4 Dr. Ghan Shyam Pandey is the Medical Officer who conducted autopsy of the dead body of Smt. Shyam Bai and medical examination of accused, PW6 Shyam Sundar is Constable who has proved chik FIR Ext. A-8, PW7 Tulsiya is witness of extra judicial confession allegedly made by accused-appellant, PW8 V.K. Singh and PW9 are two investigation officers.

8. The autopsy of the body of Smt. Shyam Bai wife of the accused-appellant was conducted by the Medical Officer, Hamirpur Dr. Ghan Shyam Pandey at 2 p.m. on 13.03.1982 and post mortem report Ext.