R. Banumathi ORDER
1. This appeal arises out of a judgment and order dated 12.1.2009 passed by the High Court of judicature at Calcutta whereby Criminal Appeal No. 378 of 1990 filed by the Appellant against his conviction and sentence of imprisonment for life for an offence punishable Under Section 302 Indian Penal Code has been dismissed, thereby affirming the judgment and order passed by the trial court. Briefly stated, the prosecution case is as under: A complaint was lodged by one Charan Kumar Saha with Maniktala police station on 30.12.1986. The complaint was to the effect that on 29/30.12.1986 between 12.10/12.15 O'clock at night, the informant was told by one of his relatives that his (informant's) 2nd daughter Gitali had been set on fire by her husband, the accused-appellant herein. On receiving this information, the informant went to the house of the Appellant on Canal East Road and found that his elder daughter Papiya and her husband had already reached there. His younger daughter Gitali was, however, not in the house although her husband (appellant) was present. The informant asked the Appellant as to what had happened but he got no answer. Papiya told the informant that at about 12 O'clock the same night, Ashoka, a maid-servant working in the house of the Appellant, informed her that the Appellant had poured kerosene oil over Gitali and set her on fire. Gitali, it was learnt by the informant, had been admitted to a hospital. The informant on that basis requested the police to take suitable action against the Appellant.
2. A case Under Section 307 read with Section 498A Indian Penal Code was, accordingly, registered against the Appellant which was later converted to one Under Section 302/498A Indian Penal Code following the death of Gitali. Investigation was, in due course, completed and a charge-sheet laid before the competent court against the Appellant for the offences aforementioned.
3. At the trial, the prosecution examined as many as 19 witnesses to prove its case while the Appellant examined Dr. S.N. Haldar in defence. Appraisal of evidence so adduced by the prosecution eventually culminated in the trial court holding the Appellant guilty of murder and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life. No conviction was, however, recorded by the trial court for the offence punishable Under Section 498A Indian Penal Code.
4. Aggrieved by the judgment and order of the trial Court, the Appellant appealed to the High Court at Calcutta. A Division Bench of that Court heard the appeal, reappraised the evidence adduced by the prosecution and that adduced in defence by the Appellant but affirmed the findings recorded by the trial court. The present appeal, as noticed above, assails the said judgments and order.
5. We have heard Mr. Pradip Kumar Ghosh, learned senior counsel for the Appellant and Mr. Kabir S. Bose, Learned Counsel for the Respondent-State at considerable length who have taken us through the judgments of the two courts below as also the depositions of all material witnesses examined at the trial. The