Judgment

RAY, J.- This appeal is directed against the conviction of the appellants under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC and imposing sentence of life imprisonment to both the appellants by the Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court by judgment dated April 1, 1987 in Criminal Appeal No. 138 of 1985. By the aforesaid judgment, the High Court set aside the judgment of acquittal passed in favour of the accused appellants by VIII Additional City and Sessions Judge, Bangalore City on January 2, 1985 in Sessions Case No. 32 of 1983.

2. The prosecution case in short is that the deceased Ramesh was a bachelor and was residing in House No. 6/5, 9th Cross, Adarsha Nagar, Chamarajpet, Bangalore. During the night between December 14 and 15, 1982, he was murdered by the accused persons. It is undisputed that the accused 2 Smt Mayamma, was a mistress of the deceased for about 3-4 years prior to the date of the incident and she was residing in Ramachandra Raos Vatara in which the house of the deceased was also situated. The said accused was often visiting the house of the deceased Ramesh during the night time. She had filed an application claiming maintenance from her husband PW 7 and had secured an order in her favour. While the said accused Mayamma was attending to her case for maintenance, she became acquainted with accused 1 Eshwaraiah, who was a Constable attached to the Wilson Garden Police Station and intimacy developed between accused 2 and accused 1. On December 14, 1982, both the accused witnessed a cinema show in Uma Talkies and returned together. They were seen near the house of the deceased at about 1 or 1.15 a.m. on December 15, 1982. Accused 2 tapped on the front door of the house and Ramesh opened the door. At that time accused 1 was standing at a little distance from the house. After accused 2 entered the house, accused 1 followed her and also entered the house. PW 1 Ramachandra Rao who was residing in the house adjacent to the house of the deceased heard a sound of cries and he woke up. He came out and went to the house of his neighbour Hemoji Rao (PW 3), a retired Constable and requested him to accompany him to find out what was the cause for the sound. Both of them went near the house but they did not hear any sound from the said house. PW 4 Sundaresh, the elder brother of the deceased had his house nearby and PWs 1 and 3 went to his house and woke him up and informed him about the sound which PW 1 had heard. The three of them then came near the house of the deceased and PW 4 tapped the door of the house but there was no response. PW 4 thereafter left the place saying that he would inform his brother Ramachandra Rao and also his cousin Inderesh. The said two persons were informed and they returned immediately to the house of the deceased. Seetharama Reddy PW 2, was a neighbour of the deceased and he woke up on hearing the barking of a dog and he came near the house of the deceased. Then PW 1 and PW 3 told him what PW 1 had heard. PW 2 also tapped the door of the house but there was no response. By that time, PW 4 returned. One Raju known to PW 4 happended to come there and PW 4 requested Raju to go and inform the police. Raju thereafter went away and returned with two Police Constables PW 5, H. Nanjundappa and another Police Constable Basavaraju. After the two police constables came to the place of incident, PW 4 broke open the window-pane and flashed the torch inside. They did not see anything. Then the front door of the house of the deceased was broken open with the size stone MO 1 and all the said persons entered the house. By that time other residents of the Vatara also awoke including PW 13 Vijaya. The light of the front door of Ramesh was switched on but nothing was seen there. The door leading to the bedroom was little open. They entered the bedroom and switched on the light but they did not see anything. When PW 2 flashed the torch underneath the cot they noticed accused 1 and accused 2 couched below it, s