IN RE: THANGAVELU ASARI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THANGAVELU Asari, the appellant herein, appeals against his conviction for an offence under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code for committing the murder of his wife Dhanalakshmi on 16th January 1969 at about 10 p.m.

(2.) IN our view, the best way of presenting the prosecution case would be to summarise the evidence of P.W. 2, the daughter of the appellant and Dhanalakshmi, the murdered victim. P.W. 2 Narasammal went to bed along with her parents on the night of 16th January 1969 at about 10 p.m. She has two younger sisters and one younger brother. P.W. 2 woke up on hearing the sound of a passing bus. Then she saw her mother with blood coming from her chest. Her father Thangavelu Asari (the appellant) was sitting near the feet of his wife with a knife on his right hand. When P.W. 2 attempted to cry, the appellant appeased her saying that she need not get frightened and that he himself had stabbed her mother with the knife. The appellant laid his daughter P.W. 2 on the bed and asked her to go to sleep. At down, P.W. 2 got up and found her father sitting on the threshold of the front door steps. The door was bolted from outside. She states further in her evidence that the appellant went to Tirupathi about one month prior to the occurrence, and on his return, he was "off his mental balance". About fifteen days thereafter, be became normal. No doubt, she asserts that at the time of the occurrence, be was mentally normal. We will later advert to the other portions of her evidence during the discussion of the nature of the offence, if any.

(3.) P .W. 4 is another witness who went to his field and returned to the village at about 7 a.m. on 17th January 1969. He saw a crowd at the Mariamman temple and he was told that the appellant had murdered his wife. While there, the appellant himself called him, took him inside his house and showed him the dead body of his wife, and he saw a bleeding injury in the middle portion of the chest. P.W. 5 is a native of that village who was returning from the village at about 7 a.m. He saw a crowd near the house of the appellant. The appellant called him and asked him to engage four men to carry the dead body of his wife to the police station at Pennagaram, saying that he had stabbed his wife to death.