( 1 ) - This is a reference under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as the learned Additional Sessions Judge. Khairagarh (Sessions Division Rajanandgaon) in Sessions trial No. 64/2000, vide its judgment dated 29-9-2000, finding the accused guilty under Section 302. I. P. C. has awarded extreme penalty! capital punishment. The accused being aggrieved by the judgment and sentences awarded to him has filed Criminal Appeal No. 2653/2000 challenging the correctness, propriety and validity of the judgment and the findings recorded by it.

( 2 ) THIS judgment shall dispose of Criminal Reference No. 1/2000 and Criminal Appeal No. 2653/2000.

( 3 ) THE charge against the accused is that in between 9th October, 1999 and 13th October, 1999 he committed murder of his mother Khwajan Bi and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302, I. P. C. The accused was also charged for an offence punishable under Section 201, I. P. C. on the ground that to cause disappearance of the material evidence; after cutting the body of his mother into pieces, he packed the same in different bags, threw some bags in a rivulet (Nala) and some were burned in a pit used for stac