( 1. ) SOLE appellant Sardar Singh has been convicted for an offence under section 302, IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life in Sessions Trial no. 127/90 by First Additional Sessions Judge, Dabra, District Gwalior vide judgment dated 24-8-1999. In this appeal he has assailed the said judgment of his conviction.

( 2. ) AS per prosecution story on 12-12-1989 at about 8 p. m. in the night nanhe Singh (P. W. 5) father of the deceased Jawahar Singh was preparing cattle food and his daughter Sunita (P. W. 8) and her brother Devendra (P. W. 7) were helping him, at that time appellant carrying 12 bore gun in his hand came at the door of the deceased and gave commotion and said that "if you belong to real father come out". When after hearing the commotion his son came out, at the same time appellant fired on him by his 12 bore gun, which he received in his both thighs. He fell down and blood also fell on the place of occurrence. Thereafter appellant ran away from the spot. Thereafter he was brought to P. S. Bhitarwar. Injured Jawahar Singh himself lodged FIR Ex. P- 12. He was referred for medical examination and MLC report is Ex. P-10 from where he was referred to Gwalior where he died. Thereafter post-mortem of the dead body was performed. Ex. P-9 is the post-mortem report. On the basis of the aforesaid FIR crime was registered, matter was investigated and charge-sheet was filed. During trial appellant abjured his guilt. It was the defence that the deceased was a person of criminal background and many criminal cases were pending against him. On the date of incident he was in the state of intoxication and he was creating nuisance in the village and under the suspicious circumstances somebody had killed him. The appellant has been implicated falsely on account of enmity. Trial Court after considering the evidence found the appellant guilty, convicted and sentenced him as aforesaid, against which he has filed this appeal.

( 3. ) FIRST of all we have considered the medical evidence on record. Ex. P-10 is the medical examination report. It was prepared by Dr. Ashok Kumar jaiswal (P. W. 9 ). According to him there was gun shot wound, which was dangerous to life and he referred the case to J. A. Group of Hospitals, Gwalior. Post mortem was performed by P. W. 6 Dr. J. N. Soni and post-mortem report is ex. P-9. According to this report, the deceased received ante-mortem multiple punctured wounds on the anterior aspect of right thigh, 16 cm. below the anterior superior ilica spine. There was also punctured wound on the left thigh 1 x 0. 05 cm. , muscle deep. These injuries were caused by fire arm. Cause of death was shock and haemorrhage as a result of injury to the lower limb. The same was homicidal in nature caused by fire arm within 6 to 24 hours. There was also fracture in the femur hone and 37 pallets were taken out from the body. The cause of the death was the aforesaid injury. Doctor has not opined whether the injury was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. It was opined that it was dangerous to life. Doctor has admitted that there were no sign of charring and tattooing near the wound. He was unable to give any opinion that from how much distance the fire was made, but it was not a contact or a close wound. On the aforesaid evidence it is clear that the deceased died because of the gun shot injury, which was homicidal in nature, and dangerous to life.

( 4. ) THE next question for our consideration is whether the appellant is the assailant. For that, prosecution examined Nanhe Singh (P. W. 5), who is the father of the deceased and was also present at the time of incident in the house. He had seen the incident. He has supported the prosecution story and according to him it was the appellant, who made gun shot fire. He was put to lengthy cross-examination, but he remained firm. Devendra (P. W. 7) is the brother of the deceased. He was also present at the place of occurrence. He had also seen the incident. H