VALANJIYA CHINNAMMAL Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A-i in Session Case No. 65 of 1978 on the file of the Court of Sessions, Salem Division, Salem, by name Valanjiya Chinnammal, aged about 30, has preferred this criminal appeal canvassing the correctness of the judgment made in the above case, convicting her under section 302, I.P.C., under charge No.1, and sentencing her to suffer imprisonment for life, and also convicting her under Section 380, I.P.C., under charge No.2, and sentencing her to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years with a direction that the sentences should run concurrently. Her husband S D. Chinnasami, who was tried as A-2 for the offence under section 34, I.P.C., under charge No.3 .has been acquitted.

(2.) The allegations on the basis of which these two accused took their trial are that on 20-2- 1978 at about 9 p.m., at Perumaampatti. A 1 murdered Kaliammal, the deceased, aged about 40, for gain by cutting her neck and severing it from the body with a koduval (M.O. 12) and also committed theft of a chain with a pendant (M. Os. 1 and 2), and that A-i assisted A-i in pledging the jewels.

(3.) To substantiate the above allegations, the prosecution has examined P.Ws. 1 to 16, filed Exts. p. i to p. 34 and marked M.Os. 1 to 23. The accused examined one Chellappan as D.W. 1.