SUKUMARA PANICKER Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A pretty damsel was snared into a trap by her employer and two other men and killed her by filling her mouth with lethal poison. Her corpse was disposed of in a far away jungle as denouement of the plot. This is the hub of the prosecution story. Among the three conspirators, two became accused and the third was transposed as approver on being tendered with a pardon. Sessions Court convicted the two accused arraigned before it. They have filed these two appeals separately.

(2.) THE story narrated by the prosecution is punctuated with love, sex, adultery, deception etc. Appellant - Sathyaseelan (A1) was proprietor of a weaving mill in which men and women were employed. Geethakumari was one of the employees in the mill. A1's wife was not a healthy woman and the spouses had no issues. A1 utilised opportunities to flirt with Geethakumari and eventually cultivated illicit sexual relationship with her by impressing upon her that he would marry her. THE wife of the appellant had a penumbra of suspicion regarding this affair. She reacted violently at it. On a particular occasion she even slapped on the cheek of Geethakumari. But such adversities did not deter Geethakumari from continuing her intimacy with A1. She applied pressure on him to have a ceremony of marriage with her at least by executing a registered document. For some more time A1 succeeded in his procrastinate tactics. However, at one stage Geethakumari gave an ultimatum that unless he would marry her she would undertake a fast in front of his house. As he found that he could no longer run with the hare and hunt with the hound, the idea of liquidation of Geethakumari stemmed in his mind. Himself along with A2 (his brother-in-law) and his friend (P. W. 7) met in secrecy and chalked out a scheme to finish her off.

(3.) TWO days later, some forest officials came across a decomposed dead body of an adult female inside the jungle near Palode cashew plantation. P. W. 1, a forest range officer, reported the matter to Palode police Station on which a crime case was registered. After inquest and autopsy, the dead body was kept in a mortuary and was later cremated.