IN RE: KANDASWAMY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant who has preferred the appeal from the Jail was committed under Section 304 (Part I), Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years by the Additional Sessions Judge, Coimbatore.

(2.) THE charge against the appellant is that he committed an offence punishable under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, for having caused the death of his wife Arukkani by throttling her at about 1 P.M. on 9th September, 1966 at his house in Nochipalayam.

(3.) ON the day of the occurrence (9th September, 1966) at about 1 P.M. the appellant and the deceased were in the house. Sometime after that, the appellant went out of the house closing the door and returned to his house at about 5 P.M. The appellant called his mother Muthathal who was working in the field belonging to P.W. 1. Kandaswami Gounder, and she went to the house of the appellant. P.W. 1 Kandaswami Gounder and P.W. 2 Nachimuthu Gounder who were baling water in or Thottam near the house of the appellant saw the mother of the appellant weeping. P.Ws. 1 and 2 went to the house of the appellant and saw Arukkani lying dead. They saw swelling on the neck of Arukkani. Her tongue was protruding, and her eyes were bulged out. There was bleeding from her mouth and nose. The appellant was near her. When P.Ws. 1 and 2 asked the appellant as to how Arukkani died, the appellant told them that at about 11 A.M. he and his wife had a quarrel and that thereupon he had throttled her to death. P.W. 3 Mottayappa Gounder, the junior paternal uncle of the appellant and his wife P.W. 6 Chellammal also saw Arukkani lying dead. They also stated that the appellant told P.W. 1 that in the course of a quarrel with Arukkani in the noon, he had throttled and killed her. P.W. 10 Mara Navithan, a barber of Nochipalayam was asked to bandage the jaws of the deceased stating that she was bitten by a snake; but some of the villagers told him that it was not a case of snake bite but that was due to violence. He refused to bandage the jaws of the deceased.