CHANDRAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RATNAVEL Pandian, J: The accused, aged about 25, in Sessions Case No.57 of 1983 on the file of the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, North Arcot Division at Vellore, has preferred this Criminal Appeal, canvassing the correctness of the Judgment made in the above case, convicting him under S.302,I.P.C. and sentencing him to suffer imprisonment for life.

(2.) THE Appellant took his trial on the allegation that on 11.2.1983 at about 3.30 P.M. at Devanampet Village, he caused the death of one Ganesan, the paramour of his wife, by cutting him with a koduval on his neck and face.

(3.) THE brief facts of the case, as disclosed from the oral and documentary evidence, can be stated as follows: The accused was owning lands and a house in the village called Devanampet and living there. He married one Kuppu two years before the occurrence. The deceased was working under the accused and used to have his food there. Ten days before Pongal, the accused, who had been to his field for irrigating his land, returned home at about 7 P.M., as there was no water. He saw his wife and the deceased talking together near the hut. He entertained a suspicion, but he did not make any complaint to any one. On the next day, he was hiding himself and saw deceased coming to his hut. Some time thereafter, his wife Kuppu also came there. The accused witnessed both his wife and the deceased having sexual intercourse, the next day he informed this matter to the elders and asked them to advise his wife. His wife Kuppu was taken to her aunt -s house. Four days thereafter, she was brought back by the accused, on the advice of one Andi, who told the accused that he had already advised the accused -s wife to behave properly thereafter. The accused and his wife lived happily for four days. On the fourth day, the accused sustained an injury on his head when he was repairing a pump -set. His brother took him to the hospital, since the injury was a serious one. At about 7 p.m., the accused returned home. At about 2.30 a.m., his wife got up and opened the rear door. On suspicion, the accused went and saw the deceased and his wife lying together. On seeing the accused, the deceased ran away. The accused questioned his wife as to why she was behaving like that, to which his wife Kuppu replied that since the accused had complained to elders, she would behave only like that. The accused was terribly upset. On the next morning, the accused told the deceased that he should not betray him. The deceased replied that the accused was not mentally all right and was only admitted in the Mental Hospital at Bagayam, and that if the accused made any complaint about him, he would inform every one in the village that the accused had again become mentally deranged, the deceased also threatened the accused saying that he would break his limbs. On the date of the occurrence, at about 3 P.M., the accused went to his field to repair the pumpset. His wife brought meals to him. Since there was no ladder, he went to cut two poles for a ladder with a koduval. At that time, P.Ws.1 and 2 and the deceased were removing paddy sapplings. The accused told P.W.2 that he wanted two poles for ladder. P.W.2 asked him to take it if they were available. On seeing the deceased, the accused lost his mental balance, got angry and gave a cut on the neck of the deceased twice with a kodaval. When P.W.1 intervened, the cut fell on the right cheek of the deceased. The accused ran away from that place. P.Ws.1 and 2 bandaged the injury of the deceased and took him in a cart to the hospital. But the deceased died enroute. The dead body was brought back to the village.