KRISHNAN NAIDU Vs. STATE OF MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant aged 19, the son of Rangappa Naicker, has been found guilty under Section 302, I.F.C., of the murder of a young woman Chittliammal aged about 16 and sentenced to death.

(2.) The facts of this case are remarkablc. The police originally laid a charge- sheet against the father Bangappa Naicker as A. 1 and the son, the present appellant, as A. 2, it would appear, under Section 302 read with Section 34, I.P.C. The committing Magistrate on some unusual evidence in the case framed a charge of murder only against the son, and a charge under Section 201, I.P.C., read with Section 511, I.P.C., i. e., for attempting to dispose of the murdered corpse against the father. In the Sessions Court, the case was split up into two and the learned Sessions Judge has tried the appellant separately on the charge of murder, it would appear, in view of the Full Bench decision of this Court, -- 'In re Narayana Ehatta', I.L.B. (1949) Mad. 220. The trial Court judgment makes no reference at all to the fact that the father had also been charge-sheeted and that the case was split up in this manner. A perusal of it leaves one in doubt and speculation as to the position of the father, whose absence either from the witness-box or the dock, on the evidence admitted in the case, is otherwise quite inexplicable. Mr. Netto of the Salem Bar, who appeared in the trial Court and was present here to assist Mr. Ethiraj for the appellant, has clarified an obscure position. The learned Sessions Judge should, when he splits up cases in this manner, make reference to it in his Judgment

(3.) The facts of this strange case according to the prosecution are these. The corpse of Chittliammal was found in the field of Rangappa Naicker, according to the official plan about 300 yards from Kondireddipatti village, where he lived. She had been stabbed through the heart, the only fatal injury on her. She also had six abrasions or contusions, 4 in the chest and abdominal region, one on the forehead and one on the right knee. They are all simple injuries pointing to some struggle, which preceded the fatal stab injury 21/2" deep in the chest, which pierced the heart.