AMMINI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants, four in number, were tried in the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Parur, in Sessions Case No. 7 of 1981, for committing murders of Merli and her two little children. The Sessions Court acquitted them but on an appeal by the State the Kerala High Court set aside their acquittal and convicted them under Section 120-B(1) and Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. Accused No. 2, Karthikeyan was also convicted under Section 411 IPC. They have, therefore, filed this appeal under Section 2(a) of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970.

(2.) Tomy and his brother Francis were doing business in partnership at Alwaye. They first started a piece-goods business under the name 'Rani Silk House' and then another one named 'Maharani Textiles'. In 1969, they started a third business initially under the name 'Rani Umbrella Mart' which was later on changed to 'Rani Cut Piece Centre'. Besides Tomy and Francis, Merli, (deceased) and Josephine (PW-26) were the other partners. After the death of Francis in 1975, Ammini (A-1) was inducted as a partner in the first two firms; but, she was not allowed to join the third firm as Francis had overdrawn his share in the capital of the firm. Ammini was periodically paid certain amounts by Tomy for maintenance of herself and her children, but she was not satisfied with that arrangement and often expressed her resentment openly. Ammini was at times required to borrow money from others and that is how she came in contact with Kartikeyan (A-2), who was her neighbour. Gradually, their acquaintance developed into illicit intimacy. In June, 1979 she fell ill and during the period of her hospitalisation A-2 was often seen with her in the hospital and it was freely talked by the people that they had developed illicit intimacy. On one occasion when Tomy had visited the hospital he had also seen A-2 with her. So he had questioned A-1 about him and told her that what she was doing was not proper. A-1 suspected that Tomy's wife Merli had informed Tomy about her illicit relationship with A-2. As a result of this incident the animosity of A-1 towards Tomy and his wife became more intense and both of them were looked upon by A-1 as her enemies. She started believing that Tomy and his wife were the cause of all her ills and that they were also an obstacle in her affair with A-2. Therefore, A-1 and A-2, sometime between June, 1979 and May, 1980, decided to ruin Tomy and his family. They first tried to achieve their object by resorting to black magic. Those attempts, however, remained ineffective. In May, 1980 A-1 had gone to Maharani Textiles for getting cloth for a safari suit for her son. When the salesman was about to cut the costly cloth selected by her. Tomy told him not to give it but to give a cheaper variety. As a result of this incident A-1 felt humiliated and returned without taking any cloth. A-1, A-2 and Johny (A-3), whose mother was the maid servant of A-1 and who was also often rendering services to her, decided to do away with Tomy and his family members. First attempt was made on 29-5-1980 when A-1 and A-3 had gone with an insecticide 'Dalf' to the house of Tomy but it failed. Thomas (A-4) had also by that time come in contact with A-1. He also joined the conspiracy to kill Tomy and the members of his family on being promised a payment of rupees one lakh. Pursuant to that conspiracy A-4 procured insecticides known as Parataph and Eccalex and the second attempt was made on 10-6-1980 to administer the mixture of those two insecticides after using Chloroform and making Merli and children unconscious. That attempt also failed as Josephine (PW-26) was found present in Merli's house. A-1, A-2 and A-4 then made a final decision to use cyanide which is a more powerful poison. A-4 was able to procure some cyanide from one Chinnappan (PW-27). As preplanned, on 23-6-1980 at about 7 p. m. A-1 first went to Tomy's house and started talking with her. After sometime A-3 and A-4 went there with a pretext that they wanted to see A-1. A-4 requested Merli to get some water for him to drink. While she was bringing water A-3 and A-4 caught her from behind, applied pressure on her neck, made her open her mouth and then forcibly put cyanide in her mouth. She tried to resist that attempt by giving a bite on the hand of A-3 but she was not successful. The poison had its effect and Merli died immediately. Then, A-1 with the help of A-3 forcibly gave cyanide to Merli's two children. They also died instantaneously. Ammini then left the house after removing a gold chain of Merli from a cupboard. The other two accused, namely, A-3 and A-4 remained behind waiting for Tomy to come; but as he did not come at the expected time they also left. When Tomy came and saw what had happened he screamed and that brought the neighbours there. Soon the Police was informed about the incident. All the accused were then charge-sheeted and tried for the offences punishable under Section 120-B and Sections 201, 302, 452 all read with Sections 34, 109 and 114 IPC. A-2 was separately charged for the offence punishable under Section 411 IPC.

(3.) There being no eye witness the prosecution relied upon the following circumstances to prove its case:-