KESAVAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant, a youth of 19, has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for the murder of his father.

(2.) THE deceased Raman was a settler in Wynad from the taluk of Valuvanad. Living with him were - he was apparently a widower, - his two sons, the accused and a little boy named Gopi, his two daughters Pws. 1 and 2 aged 17 and 12 respectively, and the accused's newly wedded wife Pw. 3, a girl of 15. It would appear from the evidence of these witnesses, as also from ext. P. 6, a confessional statement made by the accused, and Ext P. 17, his statement in the committing magistrate's court, that ever since the accused's marriage to which the deceased was opposed, and which took place about seven months before the deceased's death the deceased was bullying accused and his wife. He was incessantly abusing them, he was denying them clothes and other necessities of life, and often he used to beat the accused on some pretext or other. (THEre is a suggestion in Ext. P. 6, and in the evidence of Pw. 2 in cross-examination that the deceased's animosity was partly due to the fact that pw. 3 was resisting his improper overtures, and Ext, P. 6 speaks of one such incident on the very day of the occurrence. Pw. 3 his however denied that the deceased made any advances to her. About a month before the occurrence there was a theft of jewels in the house, and the deceased suspecting the accused was about to hand him over to the police, but desisted from doing so on the advice of the neighbours. At or about the same time the deceased beat the accused for having sold some paddy without his knowledge for the purpose of buying clothes for himself and his wife, and six days before the occurrence the deceased again beat the accused because Pw. 3 had disturbed his prayers by going past him wearing only a bodice.

(3.) FROM the time of the discovery of the body, the accused was not to be seen. At about 2 P. M. on 17-11-1956 , he went to the house of Pw. 10 the leader of the local settlers, and told Pw. 10 that he had cut and killed the deceased because the deceased had been treating him and his wife very badly. He asked Pw. 10 to take him to the police and to help him, and Pw. 10 took him and handed him over to the Circle Inspector, Pw. 18, who arrested him at 3-30 P. M.