MOHANAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under Sec. 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code). The appellant is the sole accused in S.C. No.496 of 2011 on the files of the Additional Sessions Court ' II, Thodupuzha. He stands convicted and sentenced for the offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

(2.) The wife of the accused Radha was found dead in their house on 28/2/2009. The accused has three children in his wedlock with the deceased. The first person to arrive at the house of the deceased on coming to know of the death is the mother of the deceased, Koluthai. On receiving information from Koluthai, the brother of the deceased, Rajan informed the death to the police on the following day and a crime was accordingly registered at about 9 a.m. on that day. Rajan had no clues as to the cause of death at the time of furnishing the information to the police. Consequently, the case was registered only under Sec. 174 of the Code. Later, the case was converted as one under Ss. 306, 498A and 201 IPC. The investigation conducted thereupon revealed that it is a case of uxoricide and consequently final report has been filed against the accused under Ss. 302, 498A and 201 IPC.

(3.) The essence of the accusation is that the accused used to quarrel with the deceased and torture her physically as also mentally doubting her chastity, and that at about 11 p.m. on 28/2/2009, the accused struck on the head of the deceased with the handle of a spade and thereafter hanged her, after tying a knot around her neck with a saree in the iron hook on the roof of their house. It is also the accusation that the accused thereafter cut the saree used for hanging the deceased into a few pieces, concealed the same so as to destroy evidence and caused the body to lie on the floor on a mat.