KUNHARU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge of Ernakulam for an offence under S.436 I. P. C., and has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years.

(2.) The case against him was that he set fire to the dwelling house of Pw. 5 Kumaran. Pw. 5 lives there with his mother Pw. 1, his wife Pw. 6 and their two little children aged 6 and 4 respectively. The accused and his family resides in the adjoining compound. There was no fence separating the two compounds. The accused has an unmarried sister by name Mundi. She became pregnant and it was suspected that Pw. 5 was responsible for the pregnancy. After she gave birth to a child, Mundi came with her child and set in the house of Pw. 5 and refused to get out. Pw. 5 forcibly removed her out of the compound. Shortly afterwards she returned with her brother one Kunhappan and there ensued an altercation and grappling between Pw. 5 and Kunhappan in the course of which Kunhappan fell down and sustained injuries. Thereafter it is stated that Kunhappan and his father left the house vowing vengeance.

(3.) On 4-5-1962 Pws. 5 and 6 had gone out to the grocery shop of Pw. 3 about a furlong and a half from their house. Pw. 1 and the children were alone in the house. The children had gone to the south - western portion of the compound for picking mangoes dropping down from the tree and Pw. 1 was attending to some work in the kitchen. At about 4-30 p. m. when Pw. 1 came out to see where the children were, she found the accused setting fire to the south - western corner of the thatched roof of their house with a lighted match stick. On seeing this, she cried out "Kunnumpurath people had set fire to the house" and the accused ran away to his house.