FR BENEDICT Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused in this case, Father Benedict, a 37 year old Roman Catholic Priest, has been convicted by the Sessions Judge, Quilon, under S.364 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, of the abduction in order to murder, and the murder, of a 43 year old woman by the name of Mariyakutty. He has been sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment for the former offence, and to death for the latter. He has appealed, while the learned Sessions Judge has submitted the proceedings for confirmation of the sentence of death.

(2.) The deceased Mariyakutty, a widow with five children, was living with her mother, P. W. 2, in the locality known as Avalookunnu in the town of Alleppey. She had been married three times and she had left the last of her three husbands to his own resources when he became bed-ridden with paralysis about five years before her own death. The youngest of her five children, a boy whom she thought fit to name Joy, was born to her about two years before her death, and it was round about this time that her third husband died.

(3.) From May 1962 to May 1964, the accused was the vicar of the church referred to by the witnesses as the Chakkarakkadavu Church in the town of Alleppey, about three or four miles from the house where the deceased and her mother, P. W. 2, were living. (Before that, from April 1960 to May 1962, he was the vicar of the Kannampallai Church about three or four miles from the alleged scene of offence). In May 1964, he was transferred to Changanassery as manager of the St. Joseph's Orphanage and Press opposite the Archbishop's palace. He was living in rooms in the orphanage although eating at the Archbishop's table.