BALAN NAIR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant Balan Nair was sent up for trial for the offence punishable under S.302 I.P.C. for having caused the death of his wife Chinnammu. The prosecution case is that he strangulated her with a coir rope and tied her body to the beam of the house to make it appear that the deceased hanged herself. The Sessions Court declined to accept the appellant's plea of innocence and found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life. The conviction and sentence are challenged in this appeal.

(2.) The appellant is a tea shop owner. The appellant and his deceased wife had two children and for about two years they had been residing together and some time prior to the incident the deceased had been residing in the house of her parents and she was in the advanced stage of pregnancy. The appellant had started constructing a new house. He could not complete the construction of the house for want of adequate funds. The house was not plastered and wooden planks had to be fitted for the doors and windows. Because of the financial difficulties the appellant had been requesting his wife to get her share of property from her parents. On 19-1-1983 the appellant came to the house of his wife and he repeated his demand for the share of property. PWs.3 and 4, the parents of deceased Chinnammu and PW 6, a next door neighbour, pacified the appellant and promised to settle the matter. In the morning of 21-1-1983 at about 7a.m. deceased Chinnammu went to the newly constructed house. On the previous day the appellant, deceased and their children had been to this house for watering some coconut saplings. An ear stud worn by one of the children was alleged to have been lost on that day and the deceased went to the house obviously to search for the lost ear stud. The further case of the prosecution is that the appellant followed his wife and he strangulated the deceased with a coir rope. He tied one end of the rope on the neck of the deceased and the other end was tied to the beam of the house. PW 1 who was residing very close to the house of the appellant saw the latter at about 9.30 a.m. in a very perplexed condition. He asked the appellant as to what was the cause of this perplexity and the latter confessed his guilt to this witness.

(3.) P.W.1 later went to the police station and lodged Ext.P1 information. PW 13 recorded the first information statement and registered a case against the appellant. PW 14 the Sub-Inspector of Police, conducted the investigation. He proceeded to the scene of occurrence and prepared Ext.P2 inquest. MOs. 1 to 9 were also recovered from the place of incident. The dead body was sent for post mortem examination and PW 8 conducted autopsy and Ext.P3 is the certificate. PW 14 came to know that the appellant had surrendered before the Ponnani , police station and he was later arrested and brought to Changaramkulam police station.