KUMARAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against a conviction for murder and the sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life therefor passed by the Sessions Judge of Kottayam.

(2.) The prosecution case against the appellant, who will hereafter be referred to in this judgment as the accused, was that at about 8 P. M. on 20-4-1957 he stabbed one Mathai Sebastian alias Devasia of Koramala Veedu with a malappuram knife while the latter was going along the road near Pw. 1s house at Thevarpadam in Malampara kara, Meenachil taluk, and thereby caused his death. In the Sessions Court the accused pleaded not guilty, putting forward a plea of self defence. According to him, the deceased Devasia happened to meet him while he was standing in the road and Devasia then asked him to go with him to a toddy shop, and on his refusal Devasia caught him by the hand and tried to drag him along and a scuffle ensued, and during the course of the scuffle he somehow managed to get himself free from Devasias clutches. The learned Sessions Judge refused to accept this plea, and finding that the prosecution case was true, the learned Judge convicted the accused under S.302, Indian Penal Code.

(3.) On behalf of the accused it was contended before us that barring the dying declaration, Ex. P6, made by the deceased the Prosecution has no reliable evidence to connect the accused with the commission of the crime, that the dying declaration should not be acted upon as it has not been corroborated in material particulars by other evidence, and that even if the dying declaration is accepted it is not inconsistent with the defence case of self defence, and so, the accused is entitled to an acquittal. There was also a contention that the dying declaration itself was inadmissible as it had not been satisfactorily proved that the deceased person was in a fit condition to make it.