M MARIMUTHU Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant is the sole accused and he was tried before the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No.4, Coimbatore, in Sessions Case No.177 of 2005 on a charge of murder with an allegation that at 1.00 p.m. on 30.5.2004, he caused the death of his wife, Priya, by pushing her in the bed and pressing a pillow on her face with his right knee making her to gasp for breath and thereafter, by strangling her neck with a coir rope.

(2.) BEFORE the trial Court, the prosecution examined P.Ws.1 to 15 and marked Exs.P.1 to P.12 and M.Os.1 and 2 to substantiate its case. On the side of the defence, no witness was examined nor any documentary evidence was produced. After hearing the submissions of both sides, by the impugned judgment, the learned trial Judge, accepted the prosecution version, as brought out through the oral and documentary evidence and convicted and sentenced the appellant to imprisonment for life and also imposed a fine of Rs.25,000/- and in default, to undergo one year rigorous imprisonment. The learned trial Judge also directed that on payment of the fine amount of Rs.25,000/-, Rs.10,000/- shall be paid to P.W.2, father of the deceased and Rs.10,000/- to the son of the accused and deceased, to be kept in a fixed deposit in any nationalised bank and Rs.5,000/- as fine in Court. Aggrieved by the said conviction and sentence, the present appeal has been preferred before this Court.

(3.) . The above decision has been followed by the Apex Court in its subsequent decisions, viz. in State of Rajasthan v. Raja Ram (2003 SCC Crl. 1965) and in Sivakumar v. State [(2006) 1 SCC Crl. 470] and thus, the law is well settled on the point.