JANARDHANAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Appellant has been convicted of the offence of murder of his wife, Devaki and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The case against him is that she was suffering from some mental derangement for the past 3 or 4 years prior to the incident, on account of that she used to disobey the Appellant resulting in frequent quarrels between them, on 9th September 1977 she refused to go and draw water from a well in the near by compound of P.W. 1, the Appellant made her go and fetch water therefrom by threatening her with a stick and subsequently at about 4 p.m. that day cut her throat with M.O. 3 kitchen -knife causing her instantaneous death. The scene of occurrence is alleged to be the eastern court -yard of their house in Ezhalloor Kara within the jurisdiction of the Thodupuzha Police Station. P.W.1, the brother of the Appellant gave Ext. P -1 first information statement at 8 p.m. the same day before the Thodupuzha Police Station situate 12 km. north -east of the scene of occurrence. Ext. P -2 is the inquest report. The Appellant was arrested on 11th September 1977. When questioned under Section 313 Code of Criminal Procedure he denied that he had anything to do with the death of Devaki.

(2.) THE evidence of P.W. 7 who conducted the autopsy on Devaki's dead body and Ext. P -3 post -mortem certificate issued by P.W.7 establish that Devaki met with violent death at the hands of an assailant. There were four injuries on her body and none of them was self -inflicted. Two of the injuries, Nos. 1 and 4 in Ext. P -3, were fatal, each by itself and according to P.W.7, Devaki would not have survived more than 5 minutes after she sustained those injuries. The said injuries are:

(3.) APPELLANT 's conviction is based, as stated above, solely on circumstantial evidence. The circumstances relied on by the lower court as enumerated in paragraph 20 of its judgment are: