JUDGMENT :

Vinay Saraf, J.

1. The appellants have preferred the instant appeal being aggrieved by the judgment dated 04.02.2020 delivered by the Special Judge, Schedule Castes & Schedule Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mandla in Special Case No.18/2017, whereby learned Special Judge has convicted the appellants Krishna Kumar Rajak and Satyendra Varkade under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC, 201 of IPC and sentenced each of them to undergo imprisonment for life and RI for three years respectively and fine amount of Rs.10,000/- and Rs. 2000/- with default stipulation, however, learned Special Judge acquitted co-accused Brajesh @ Ghoi Maravi from all the charges and appellants were also acquitted from the charges leveled under Section 3(2)(5) of the Schedule Tribe and Schedule Caste (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and 376 (D) of I.P.C.

2. Prosecution case in brief is that on 21.11.2016, Simbhu Das Bairagi (PW1), Village Kotwar of Village Keriwah informed to the Police Niwas, District Mandla that dead body of a young lady is lying in the forest of Village Keriwah and several parts of the body were eaten by wild animals. Upon his information, Police went at the spot and recovered the dead body of unknown lady on 21.11.2016 on 11:40 am and registered inquest intimation report Ex.P-1 under Section 174 of the Cr.P.C.

3. Upon registration of inquest report, the enquiry started and the police officer prepared spot memo, seized the incrementing articles from the spotand forwarded the body for postmortem. Post mortem report revealed that the deceased was murdered and resultantly Police Niwas, District Mandla registered Crime No.218/2016 under Sections 302, 201 of the IPC against unknown person and started investigation. Upon enquiry the Police came to know that daughter of Basant Soyam (PW-10) of Village Majhgao was missing since 14.11.2016, however, no missing person report was lodged. Basant Soyam (PW10) informed that his daughter was missing however he could not identified the body as his daughter, and for the purpose of identification, the femur bone of right leg of the deceased was sent for DNA examination with the blood samples of the Basant Soyam and his wife. In DNA report, it was confirmed that the body recovered from the forest of Keriwah was of the missing daughter of Basant Soyam. During investigation, Basant Soyam informed to the Investigating Officer that his daughter was using one Galaxy Star Pro Black Mobile of Samsung Company and the same was in her own name. Thereafter, Special Investigating Team was constituted and CDR details of the mobile were obtained and from the examination, it was revealed that one Ram Charan Parte (PW11) was using the said mobile phone. The mobile phone was seized from the possession of Ramcharan Parte, who disclosed that he purchased the mobile phone from one Dilip Marko (PW15).

4. Upon enquiry, Dilip Marko revealed that he purchased the said mobile from Krishna Kumar Rajak (appellant no.1) at Rs.700/- and sold the same to Ramcharan Parte for Rs.2000/-. On the basis of the aforesaid information and examination of CDR, it came on record that after death of deceased, appellant Krishna Kumar Rajak used mobile phone of the deceased. Thereafter, he was interrogated and during interrogation, he accepted that with the help of co-accused Satyendra (appellant no.2) he murdered deceased to whom he loved, but she was in relation with some other boy. Upon his information, the burnt cloths of the deceased were seized by the police and shirt and trouser allegedly used by the appellant, Krishna Kumar Rajak at the time of incident were also seized from his possession.

5. Satyendra Varkade(appellant no.2) produced the photograph of the deceased and her education certificate, which were seized from his possession with a brown colored ladies purse. Another black colour ladies purse was seized from co-accused Brajesh along with the photocopies of the mark sheet and certificate of the High School an