MAHANDRA DEVA Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole accused in S.C.No.454 of 2017 on the files of the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge-V, Ernakulam is the appellant in the appeal. He stands convicted and sentenced for the offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

(2.) The victim in the case was a domestic help aged about 60 years. She was working in a few houses including the house of one Parvathy, located at Palace road in Mattanchery. At the time of occurrence, the only son of Parvathy was living with his family at Mysore. Parvathy was only occasionally living in her house at Mattanchery as she was also staying with her son in Mysore. When Parvathy was away from her house, she used to entrust one set of the keys of her house with Latha, the daughter-in-law of her elder sister who was residing close to her house and another set of the keys with one Vasantha, who is also one of her neighbours. The victim was working, at the time of occurrence, as a maid in the house of Latha as well.

(3.) The accused though a native of Karnataka, was doing petty jobs in the locality where Parvathy was residing and he used to sleep at the veranda of the house of Parvathy. The accused also used to do petty work in the house of Parvathy. On 23/1/2017, the victim went to the house of Latha at about 1 p.m., and after having lunch from there, she proceeded to the house of Parvathy for work after obtaining the keys of the house of Parvathy which were entrusted with Latha. While doing so, the victim had kept some of her belongings in the veranda of the house of Latha. At about 5.30 p.m. on that day, having noticed that the belongings kept by the victim in the veranda of her house were not taken by the victim, Latha called the victim on her mobile phone. The daughter-in-law of the victim who received the call stated that the victim has not reached home. Latha then proceeded to the house of Vasantha to ascertain whether the keys of the house of Parvathy entrusted by Latha to the victim had been returned to Vasantha. Latha then noticed that the said keys were hung in the house of Vasantha and she was told by Vasantha that they were given to the sister-in-law of Vasantha by the accused. Latha and Vasantha then proceeded to the house of Parvathy in search of the victim and when they opened the main door, they found the victim lying face down on her chest on the floor in the front room of the house in a pool of blood. They immediately informed the matter to another neighbour of Parvathy, viz, Ravi, and he, having found that the victim is no more, informed the matter to the police. On receiving information, the police came to the scene and thereupon, after recording a statement from Latha, a case was registered in connection with the death of the victim.