JUDGMENT :

RAJENDRA MAHAJAN, J.

Appellant Bhura @ Atip has preferred this criminal appeal under section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short the Cr.P.C.), being aggrieved by the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 9-7-2007 passed by the Court of First Additional Sessions Judge, Chhindwara in S.T. No. 262/2005 State of M.P. vs. Bhura @ Atip, whereby he stands convicted under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (for short the IPC) for committing murder of his wife Taj Bi and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/-, in default of which to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for two months.

2. The prosecution case as unfolded during the trial is given below in detail because the case is based upon the circumstantial evidence :—

2.1 On 31-5-2002 at about 2.45 P.M. an unknown person informed Rajendra Kumar Singh (PW 14), the then SHO P.S. Chandameta, on telephone that a dead body of unknown woman is lying on the mount of Mahadev Puri Coal Mine. He entered this information in Rojnamcha Sanha No. 1216 and reached the spot with Police force to verify the truthfulness of it. He found a corpse of young woman aged