S. K. Chawala, J. -- 1. Appellant Fundi, aged about 52 years, has filed this appeal, challenging his conviction under two heads under section 302 I.P.C. and sentence of imprisonment for life inflicted for each of the two offences, for committing murders of his own daughters, Kalawati aged 13 years, and Guddi aged 9 years, while they were asleep in his house on the night of 22nd/23rd October, 1983, in village Chak Sarwa, P.S. Gohad, district Bhind.

2. The prosecution case rested on the statement of appellant Fundi, recorded as dying declaration (Ex. P-17) by Naib Tahsildar and Executive Magistrate, Shri Purshottam Gupta (P.W.9) and circumstantial evidence. The said dying declaration (Ex.P.17) was excluded, and rightly, from consideration by the trial Court. It was alleged that in the wake of the incident, the accused had caused injuries to himself in a bid to end his life and was in a serious condition, when his statement was recorded by Shri Purshottam Gupta (P.W.9) in Gohad Hospital, on 23.10.83, at 5.15 p.m. That statement so far as it released to the cause of his own injuries would have been admissible as dying-declaration. But since the maker of the said statement chanced t