APPAVU PARIYARI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference by the learned Sessions Judge of Thanjavur in S.C. No. 77 of 1959, convicting the appellant, Appavu Pariyari, of the murder of his mistress, Ammalu Ammal (S. 302 I.P.C.), and sentencing him to death. The appeal of the condemned prisoner is also before us.

(2.) The background of this crime is substantially not in dispute, and is further proved by the complete judicial confession made by the appellant. The appellant was keeping Ammalu Ammal the wife of Marudayya Velalar (P.W. 1) for some time prior to this occurrence. The appellant is a vaidhyar or native physician, and the illicit intimacy apparently commenced when he treated Ammalu Ammal nearly five years back for some complaint. It is alleged that later the husband (P.W. 1) discovered the intimacy and reprimanded his unfaithful wife, which led to the temporary cessation of visits by the accused. But the evidence makes it fairly clear that the husband (P.W. 1) was complaisant for the most part, and that the intimacy really continued subsequently also, practically unchecked. Actually, the suggestion in the defence is that the murder might have been perpetrated by the enraged relatives of the man.

(3.) It is also very clear that Valli Ammal (P.W. 4) was acting as a pimp in this matter, carrying on messages to and from between the accused and the deceased, and generally facilitating their mutual meetings. On the night of 10-10-1959, P.W. 4 who was charged with similar commission from the accused as on prior occasions, gently woke up the deceased as she was actually lying near her husband (P.W. 1), with the result that the deceased came out, and went eastwards where the accused was waiting for her. After this, the accused and the deceased went away together beyond the house of one Narayanaswami Chettiar, which was then locked, and that was when they were last seen alive by P.W. 4.