RAVUNNI NAIR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Criminal Appeal and the connected Referred Trial arose from the judgment and order, dated October 9, 1956, of the learned Sessions Judge of South Malabar Division, at Kozhikode, in Sessions Case No. 55 of 1956 on the file of his court, convicting the accused therein, Chakkulli Ravunni Nair Alias Appunni Nair (hereinafter referred to as the accused), for committing an offence of murder and sentencing him to the extreme penalty of the law. The accused was tried before the learned Sessions Judge for the murder of his mother inlaw's younger sister, Kinattunkara Puthanveettil Kalliani Amma. The murder was alleged to have taken place during the night between 30.6.1956 and 1.7.1956. The learned Sessions Judge found the accused guilty, convicted him of murder and sentenced him to death. The accused preferred Criminal Appeal No. 637 of 1956 before the Madras High Court against his conviction and sentence. The learned Sessions Judge submitted the proceedings to the said High Court under S.374, Criminal Procedure Code, for confirmation of the death sentence and that was registered there as Referred Trial No. 128 of 1956. The Appeal and the Referred Trial have since been transferred to the file of this court under S.60(3) of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Central Act XXXVII of 1956).

(2.) The deceased Kalliani Amma had no children and at the time of her death she was 58 years of age. For about 10 years she worked as a maid servant under one Krishna Varier, but three or four months prior to her death she left that service and returned to her home in Panamanna Amsom in Valluvanad Taluk. At that time she had Rs. 300 in cash, a gold vasantha chain weighing about two sovereigns, a small gold thali and a nose screw. The accused had married a daughter of the deceased's elder sister, Cherona Amma (PW 2). The deceased and Cherona Amma had two brothers, Sankaran Nair and Narayanan Nair (PW 1). During the period material to the case Sankaran Nair was ill with advanced tuberculosis and he was staying in his wife's house not far away from his tarwad house. Narayanan Nair was for long absent in Madras, being employed in some hotel there. He, however, returned home on or about 12.7.1956. Besides the accused's wife, Janaki, (PW 4) PW 2, the deceased's elder sister, had two other daughters and a son, Achuthan Nair (PW 3). The accused and PW 4 had three children of whom the eldest Rukmini (PW 5) was about 15 or 16 years old at the time of Kalliani Amma's death. When Kalliani Amma left her service under Krishna Varier and returned home to Panamanna Amsom the accused's wife and children were living in their tarwad house and the accused used to stay there or visit the place very often. His own house was in Thottakkara, about a mile and a half away from his wife's tarwad house. On her return Kalliani Amma began to live in the tarwad house with PW 4 and her children. PW 2, her other daughters and PW 3 lived separately in their house about a mile away from the tarwad house.

(3.) The tarwad house referred to above was a storeyed one. PW 5 and the two younger children of the accused and PW 4 used to sleep in the first floor, the accused and PW 4 in the southern room in the ground floor and Kalliani Amma in the northern room. While living there Kalliani Amma entrusted her savings, which as stated earlier amounted to Rs. 300 to her brother Sankaran Nair. Out of that she first got back Rs. 100 and with it purchased a small plot of ground from PW 3 to put up a house of her own. Later she took a further sum of Rs. 140 or Rs. 150 and spent all but Rs. 100 out of it on a pilgrimage to Pazani. The evidence in the case is to the effect that the said balance of Rs. 100 was with her on the day she was last seen alive, namely 30.6.1956. The further balance left in Sankaran Nair's hands had been lent to somebody on a promissory note. Usually she wore her ornaments on her person. As stated earlier, they consisted or a small thali, a nose screw and a gold vasantha chain. Witnesses who spoke of her having had in her possession Rs. 100 on or about 30.6.1956, also gave evidence that when they saw her last on 30.6.1956, she was wearing all those ornaments.