Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
R. Banumathi and A.S. Bopanna

JUDGMENT

R. Banumathi, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises out of the judgment dated 02.02.2018 in Criminal Appeal No. 799 of 2006 passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior Bench in and by which the High Court affirmed the conviction of the Appellant-Accused Under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and Under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the sentence of life imprisonment imposed upon him.

3. Brief facts which led to filing of this appeal are as under:

On 14.08.2005 at about 11:00 AM, complainant-Rajaram (PW-1) along with his brother Raghuveer (PW-2), deceased Veer Singh and relative Badam Singh (PW-7) had gone to cultivate the fields and for grazing their cattle. When deceased Veer Singh was cultivating the field and others were grazing the cattle, Appellant-Accused Khuman Singh came to the field of deceased Veer Singh and left his buffaloes for grazing. Deceased Veer Singh objected to it and drove the buffaloes of the Appellant-Accused out of his field on which, Appellant became furious and started abusing and scolding the deceased that how the deceased who belongs to Khangar Caste could drive away the buffaloes of Thakurs out of his field. When deceased objected to it, it is alleged that the Appellant with an intention to kill the deceased, attacked him with an axe due to which, deceased Veer Singh fell down. Thereafter, Appellant-Accused allegedly gave two-three blows on the head of the deceased with axe. On seeing the complainant (PW-1), his brother (PW-2) and Badam Singh (PW-7) coming, Appellant-Accused ran away from the spot. Deceased died on the spot itself. Rajaram (PW-1) lodged the Dehati Nalishi/complaint (Ex.-P1) based on which, FIR in Crime Case No. 306/2005 was registered against the Appellant-Accused Under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and Under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Dr. Pradeep Sharma (PW-5) had conducted the post-mortem on the dead body of deceased Veer Singh and found six injuries on his head. PW-5 issued post-mortem certificate (Ex. P10) opining that the cause of death was shock due to excessive external and internal bleeding. Upon completion of investigation, charge sheet was filed against the Appellant-Accused Under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and Under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

4. To prove the guilt of the Accused, the prosecution examined three eye witnesses viz. Rajaram (PW-1), Raghuveer (PW-2) and Badam Singh (PW-7) who have spoken about the occurrence and R.C. Bhoj, Police Incharge (PW-4), who has recorded Dehati Nalishi (Ex.-P1), Dr. Pradeep Sharma (PW-5) who has conducted post-mortem on the dead body of deceased and other witnesses. Upon consideration of evidence, the trial court held that the prosecution has proved the guilt of ........