JUDGMENT

Sujoy Paul, J. - In this appeal filed under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, the appellant has called in question the legality, validity and propriety of the impugned judgment dated 6th January 2012, passed in S.T. No.383 of 2009, whereby he has been convicted for committing offence under Section 302 of IPC and Sections 25 and 27 of the ARMS ACT and directed to undergo the sentence of Life Imprisonment for committing offence of murder and three years RI relating to offence under the provisions of ARMS ACT with fine and default stipulation. The sentences were directed to run concurrently.

The factual backdrop :

2. As per prosecution story, the deceased, Princy Jain was residing in Room No.307 of Vindhshri Girls Hostel, M.P. Nagar, Zone-2, Bhopal.

She was a student of First Year in B.E.T. College. Basically, Princy Jain was a resident of Ganjbasoda. On 2.3.2009, at around 6.30 pm, she left the said hostel alongwith her friend Shefali Goel. They were going to attend computer coaching class in Zone -2, M.P. Nagar, Bhopal. When they entered a lane near Computer Class, the appellant Sulabh Jain came there with a bag and told Princy that she may do whatever she wants to do and immediately fired on her back. With a gunshot sound, Princy fell down. The appellant fled away from the place of incident. Akhilesh Mishra (PW-6) and Shailendra Dwivedi (PW-7) reached the place of incident and took Princy to the City Hospital. After examining her, the Doctors declared her as dead. A Police report was lodged in the Police Station, M.P. Nagar, Bhopal. During the investigation, a spot map was prepared. The post-mortem report revealed that reason of death is hemorrhage because of gunshot injury. Thus, death of Princy was admittedly homicidal in nature. The appellant was arrested and during investigation, as per information furnished by him, a country made pistol was recovered by the Police.

3. The hand-bag of Princy Jain was recovered from the place of incident. Apart from other material, a letter was also found in the said bag, which was in-fact an application to the Police Authorities regarding the conduct of Sulabh Jain with a prayer to take appropriate action against the appellant. From the room of deceased in the hostel, her laptop and a diary was recovered. As per the prosecution case, the signature of Princy Jain in the said letter written to Police tallies with her signature contained in the diary.

4. An empty cartridge was recovered from the place of incident, which was duly sealed and sent for scientific analysis to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Sagar. The Senior Scientists, in turn, opined that the bullet is indeed fired from the weapon (country made pistol) recovered at the instance of the appellant.

5. The appellant abjured his guilt and pleaded innocence. He denied the allegation that he had one sided love affair with the deceased. On the contrary, there is a previous enmity between his and deceased's family because of which Om Prakash (PW-15), father of deceased falsely arraigned him in criminal case from which he has already been acquitted.

6. The trial court framed four issues and decided the same in the impugned judgment.

7. The court below after considering the evidence led by the parties, opined that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Accordingly, the appellant was convicted for committing offence under Section 302 of IPC and Sections 25 and 27 o