PACKIAM Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant was the accused in S.C. No. 91 of 1986 on the file of the I Additional Sessions Court, Madurai. She was found guilty of the offence under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860 for short I.P.C.) convicted thereunder and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The present action is against the said conviction and sentence.

(2.) Brief facts are: One Mariappan alias Joker (since deceased) was resident of Nanmaitharuvar Koil Street, Madurai. He was then aged 30 years. The accused, aged 19 years, is none-else then his sister. Both of them were unmarried. P.W.6 is their brother. The deceased, accused, P.W. 6 and their parents lived in one and the same house. Opposite to their house is the house of P.W. 5. The deceased was a rickshaw puller by profession. He appeared to be a spend-thrift and fell to evil ways of life. He never spared any money to his family members and be of any help to them. But, he always proved to be a source of trouble to the other family members, in the sense of himself making demands from the other family members for the money to be paid by them for his nefarious activities. On account of the same, want of cordial atmosphere came to prevail between him and other members of his family, on occasions more than one, prior to the occurrence, which event happened on the 4th September, 1985. Such want of cordial atmosphere came to be known to outsiders, as a result of perennial wordy altercation between them. P.W. 5, opposite house owner had the occasion to witness such skirmishes happening very often between the family members. There is a lodge going by the name Buruha Lodge located in the same street, in which the accused and the deceased were living. P.Ws. 1 and 2 were the managers of the said lodge. The deceased appeared to have so much of acquaintance with the said lodge, by procuring customers and also earning commissions therefor. In close quarters to the said lodge, there is a Noon Meal Centre on the east, in which, it appears, the accused, along with her sister, by name Mallika, used to take bed, during night hours, on certain occasions, obviously, as a result of scarcity of space in the family house. On the day of the occurrence, the accused along with her sister Mallika came to the said Noon Meal Centre for taking bed during night hours. A few minutes prior to the occurrence, which happened at 8.30 p.m. the deceased case there then and persisted in the accused going along with him to Madras, to which course, accused flatly refused. The deceased got enraged on such an attitude and he, in fact, hurled a stone towards her. She in turn felt annoyed, and picked the stone so hurled, chased him and in the process of such chasing, she hurled the stone aiming at the deceased and the deceased fell down in front of the said lodge, as a consequence of receipt of a hit by the stone all his head. The accused also reached there and the deceased who fell on the ground, resumed his position and again persisted in his demand, in the sense of mandating the accused to accompany him to Madras. Stout resistance came forth from the accused. The deceased, however, caught hold of the hands of the accused and attempted to drag her to the railway station, so as to make the contemplated trip to Madras. In such process, a scuffle ensued and in the process of such a scuffle, a knife (M.O.1) kept hidden in the waist of the deceased, accidentally fell down. The accused, somehow or other wriggled out of the clutches of the deceased, and in such process, the bangles she wore on her hands, got crushed to pieces. After wriggling out from the hold of the deceased, she took up the knife and resorted to inflict a stab on his right flank, making him fall on the ground and thereafter, she inflicted stab indiscriminately on various portions of the body of the deceased. She then ran away towards cast, along with M.O.1 knife. Such an occurrence had been witnessed by P.Ws. 1 and 2, managers of the said lodge, who, happened to sit and converse with each other in front of the lodge. Besides them, P.W.3, a resident of the street pursuing the avocation of fruit vending, happened to see the occurrence, when he was available in his house after taking the night supper and also waiting for the arrival of his friend, P.W A, who promised to meet him then. P.W A, likewise, had the fortuitous opportunity of witnessing a portion of the occurrence that had happened, prior to the actual stabbing. P.W. 1, without any loss of time, contacted B 10 Police Station, Madurai over phone and informed about the dastardly occurrence. P.W. 16, the then Sub Inspector of-Police, was in charge of the police station and he attended the phone call. The phone message he had received, had been entered in the general diary. EX. P.17 is the entry so made in the general diary. He then, along with P.W. 15 Grade II Constable, rushed and reached the place of occurrence at about 9.15 p.m. On reaching the scene, he procured the service of an auto, bearing registration number M.D.B. 5409 driven by P.W. 8 for taking the victim-deceased from the scene to the hospital. Before the victim deceased was taken in the, auto rickshaw, he recorded a statement from P. W. I, as narrated by him. EX. P-1 is the statement. He, along with P.W. 15 and the victim-deceased reached the police station at 9.30 p.m. and from there, the victim-deceased was transported to the hospital, with a medical memo Ex. P-4, along with P.W. 15. He then registered the case in Crime No. 166/185 under Sec.307, I.P.C. Ex. P. 16 is the printed F.I.R. He dispatched copies of the said F.I.R. to the concerned officials. P.W. 9 was the Civil Assistant Surgeon, Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. At about 9.45 p.m., the victim-deceased had been produced before P.W. 9 by P.W. 15, along with medical memo, Ex. P-4. The victim-deceased was then unconscious. His condition was also critical. P.W. 9 gave him treatment. P.W. 15 seized from the victim-deceased, his bloodstained dhoti, (M.O. 6). P.W. 9 admitted the victim-deceased and transferred him to the Emergency Ward. Ex. P. 5 is the copy of the accident register, relatable to the injuries he found on the person of the victim-deceased. At 10:10 p.m., the victim-deceased din the hospital. Ex. P-6 is the death intimation issued by the doctor P.W. 10.

(3.) On committal, learned .Sessions Judge framed a charge under Sec.302, I.P.C. against the accused. The accused, when questioned, as respects the charge so framed, denied the same and claimed to be tried.