VENKATESH ALIAS VENKATESAN Vs. STATE REP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Appeal is directed against the conviction and sentence passed by the Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Coimbatore, as per the judgment dated 21.11.1996 rendered in S.C.No.60 of 1996 thereby convicting the appellant/accused for the commission of an offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life.

(2.) The charge as framed against the accused before the Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Coimbatore is that on 19.3.1994 at 3.00 a.m., the accused stabbed one Saroja indiscriminately with a knife at her residence at Jamedhar Street, Koilmedu, Velandipalayam with an intention to murder her and the said Saroja succumbed to the injuries on the same day at 7.45 p.m. and hence the charge against the accused under Section 302 IPC.

(3.) The Court of Sessions, Coimbatore has conducted a full trial into the above charge with due opportunity for the prosecution and the defence as well to exhaust their remedies, during which on the part of the prosecution, whose burden it is to prove the charge beyond all reasonable doubts as warranted under law, has examined P.Ws.1 to 16 for oral evidence and has marked Exs.P1 to P.22 as documentary evidence besides marking material objects viz. M.Os.1 to 9. On the side of the defence, no witness has been examined nor any document marked as evidence and in appreciation of the said evidence placed on record as aforementioned, the Court of Sessions, Coimbatore has ultimately arrived at the conclusion to convict the accused for the offence charged under Section 302 IPC and accordingly has passed on a sentence of imprisonment for life against the accused as per its judgment dated 21.11.1996 and it is this conviction and sentence which are under challenge in the above Criminal Appeal before this Court.