AIYYASAMY Vs. STATE OF TAMILNADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant stands convicted for an offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for which he stands sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life by judgment dated 14. 11. 2000 in S. C. No. 204 of 2000 on the file of the Court of Sessions, Coimbatore . That conviction is in challenge in this appeal. Heard Mr. D. Natarajan, learned counsel appearing for the appellant and Mr. D. Raja, learned Additional Public prosecutor for the State.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution is that at 7 AM on 3. 4. 1995 the appellant killed his wife by indiscriminately cutting her and therefore he is guilty of committing the offence under Section 302 of the indian Penal Code. PW2 is a resident of Athupalam. He had not seen the accused prior to the occurrence. He had gone to Nanjundapuram on the day of occurrence to take a loan from some of the persons residing there to whom he had already made an approach. He was on his way to Nanjundapuram at about 7 AM. About 50 feet ahead of him, a male and a female were going. All of a sudden the male took out an aruval and cut the female accompanying him. Immediately PW2 hid himself behind a bush. He does not know the identity of the male and after the occurrence, the male went towards east. PW3 is a resident of Nanjundapuram. On the day of occurrence, after attending the calls of nature he was returning home. He knows the accused. He saw the accused running from east towards west and when asked he did not answer at all. THE accused had a knife in his arm at that time. On proceeding further PW3 saw the wife of the accused lying down with cut injuries. THE accused went towards Vellalore Road.

(3.) PW11 continued the investigation further by examining the witnesses and recording their statements and when the accused was in a mood to give a confession statement, PW11 gave a requisition Exp9 to the Court to record the confession statement of the accused. He sent the case properties to the Court with a requisition to subject the same for chemical examination. He caused photographs of the scene of occurrence and MO14 series and MO15 series are the photographs and negatives. PW10 was the then Judicial Magistrate No. 8, coimbatore. On receipt of Exp9 he sent the intimation to the prison authorities to secure the presence of the accused before him in Court. Accordingly at 12. 40 pm on 19. 4. 1995 the accused was produced before him. Administering necessary precaution and warning to the accused PW10 verified as to whether the accused is still willing to give a confession statement. Then he gave him 24 hours time to ponder over the issue, namely whether he is still willing to give the statement or not. PW10 took the precaution of keeping the accused separately. At about 1. 30 PM on 20. 4. 1995 the accused was again produced before him. Even at that time PW10 advanced necessary warnings to him and made it clear to him that still if he wants to give the confession statement, it is likely to be used against him. In spite of that the accused expressed his willingness to give a statement. Then the statement given by him was recorded by PW10. Exp10 series is the proceedings relating to the recording of the confession statement and the confession statement itself. When the entire proceedings went through in his Court except the Court Officer he saw to that that none else was present. PW11 was succeeded by PW12. After verifying the investigation already done by PW11, he made further investigation. Then he ultimately filed a final report against the accused on 20. 5. 1995 for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.