NEERUKONDA PARABRAHMA MURTHY Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants between them are father and son. They stand convicted of the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 Indian Penal Code for murdering the wife of the first appellant, Parabrahma Murthy on 15/3/1990. The Sessions court convicted both of them and sentenced them to imprisonment for life and the High court confirmed the conviction and sentences.

(2.) The marriage of the first appellant Parabrahma Murthy with the deceased Nagaratna was on 23/2/1989 which means her death had occurred within 13 months thereof. The gist of the case against the appellants was that they persecuted the deceased for more dowry amount. Her father and brothers tried their best to meet the demand but the greed of the appellants could not be satiated by them. Revengefully they killed her by throttling her.

(3.) There is no dispute that deceased Nagaratna died of asphyxia. There is no doubt that her death was neither due to ligature strangulation nor due to a hanging. This is very clear from the data supplied by the doctor who conducted the autopsy on her dead body (Ex. P-6 is the post-mortem certificate). The learned counsel for the appellant, however, advanced an argument that death due to hanging cannot completely be ruled out even from the aforesaid data in the post-mortem report.