1. The appellant – Sitaram Prajapat has filed the present appeal being aggrieved by the judgment dated 31.10.2007 passed by learned 17th Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track), Indore in Sessions Trial No. 212/2006, whereby he has been convicted under section 302 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment along with fine of Rs. 500/- with default stipulation.

2. As per prosecution story, on 8.3.2006, near about at 6.30 p.m., inside the factory of Banty Solanki, Banty, the deceased – Santosh and Daulat were sitting and chatting. Near about at 7 pm., accused – Sitaram came there and took Santosh with him on his motorcycle. After 15 minutes, Santosh came alone there with bleeding from his chest and said that Sitaram has stabbed him by knife and fell down. Daulat immediately called Hemant and they both took Santosh to Royal Hospital and the Doctor who attended the deceased found him dead and referred him to the M.Y. Hospital, whereby the deceased was declared as dead. On the report given by Daulat, Dehati Nalisi was recorded and later on, first information report was registered for the offence under section 302 of the IPC under Crime No. 112/2006 against appellant.

3. Thereafter, the Police started investigation. The dead body of the deceased was seÁed and sent for postmortem. As per Doctor's opinion given in the postmortem report, the deceased died due to excessive bleeding from the injuries. Blood-stained clothes of the deceased were seÁed. Statement of Daulat, Tejpalsingh and Banti were recorded under section 161 of CrPC and thereafter, the accused was arrested and a knife was also recovered from him vide Ex. P-5. Blood-stained soil, clothes of the deceased, knife and the clothes of accused were also seÁed and sent to the FSL, Rau vide Ex. P-8 and P-9. After completing the usual investigation, challan was filed before the competent Court, who committed the trial to the Sessions Court.

4. In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined Manoj as PW1 as a witness of dead body seÁure memo Ex. P-1, Kamal (PW2) to prove the arrest memo, but he has turned hostile. In cross-examination by the Public Prosecutor, he deposed that the accused was not arrested before him.

5. The prosecution further examined Pushpendra Singh (PW3), Hemant who stated that Daulat had informed him that Sitaram caused the injuries by knife to Santosh and ran away. Bunti @ Mahendra was examined as PW7 who deposed in Court that Santosh went along with the accused and after 10-15 minutes, Santosh came back and said that somebody has stabbed him by knife. Dr. Tejpalsingh of Royal Hospital was examined as PW8, who stated that he checked the deceased who had already expired, then he referred him to the M.Y. Hosptial. The prosecution examined Dr. Bharat Prakash, Medical Officer as PW13 and according to him, the deceased received 8 injuries within 24 hours of postmortem and he died because of the excessive bleeding from the injuries sustained by him. The prosecution examined Daulat as PW14 who stated that near about at 7 p.m., Sitaram took Santosh in his motorcycle and after half an hour, Santosh came back in an injured condition and stated that somebody has caused him stabbed injuries. He with the help of Hemant (PW4) took him to the hospital where he was declared as dead. The prosecution examined Ashok Rangshahi as PW15 who registered the FIR and arrested the accused. According to him, at the time of arrest, the accused was carrying the knife containing bloodstains and he prepared the seÁure memo (Ex. P-5) and during investigation, he was transferred and the remaining investigation was completed by another Assistant Sub Inspector. In Para 12 of his cross-examination, he admitted that he prepared the spot map and seÁed the blood-stained soil from the spot, but both the memos are not part of the challan. He has also admitted that there were several houses within 20-30 yards of place of incident and he enquired about the incident, but they had no inf