IMBAYI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant Ibrahim alias Imbayi is the sole accused. PWs 2 and 4, Mohammedkutty and Abdul Majeed, are his elder brothers. PW 10, Sainaba, aged 50 is their widowed mother. Deceased Avutty aged 26 was their close neighbour. Ever since the death of her husband, PW 10 had a fascination for the deceased to satisfy her lust. The affair went on continuously for about nine years. To enable the sexual liaison, she used to sleep alone in the kitchen under some false pretext. The kitchen has an exit door through which entry from outside without being noticed by others is easy. PWs. 2 and 4 were aware of this liaison and they had to acclimatise and swallow their protest. But the appellant, who was aged only 17 at the time of incident, was unaware of this. On 20-11-83 he had a confrontation with the deceased inside the kitchen at about 11.00 or 11.30 in the night after his sexual liaison with his mother was over. PW 2 interfered and prevented the appellant. Deceased was sent away to his house with an assurance that the matter could be talked over the next morning. Appellant was caged in a room. Within five minutes, the deceased re-appeared near the lane in front and called PW 2. While PW 2 asked him to go away, the appellant rushed near him and stabbed him to death. These are the allegations, on which he was tried and convicted for murder and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

(2.) Defence is a denial of the second part of the incident. It is said that the ' incident started when the deceased forced open the door and committed rape on PW 10 by gagging her and showing a knife inside the kitchen. Contention is that the deceased sustained the fatal injury inside the kitchen with his own weapon in the fight with the appellant who tried to rescue the mother.

(3.) The only occurrence witness is PW. 2. He turned hostile and supported the defence version. That is the case with PWs.4 and 10 also. Barring their evidence and the medical evidence, which unmistakably indicate that Avutty had a homicidal death, the relevant evidence gets confined to the testimonies of PWs. l,3, and 5. If the prosecution case is established, it is definitely murder punishable under S.302.