MAHALINGAM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been preferred against the judgment made in S.C.No. 3 of 2004 on the file of the learned District and Sessions Judge, Thiruvannamalai. By the impugned judgment, the appellant was found guilty, convicted and sentenced under Section 302 IPC to undergo imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Rs.5000/-, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. The said conviction and sentence is under challenge in the present appeal.

(2.) THE prosecution case, as per the charge is that the deceased had illicit intimacy with the wife of the accused and on 13.9.2003 at 10 a.m., at the cornfield, situate on the southern side of the Veera Kovil, both of them were seen together by the accused and when the accused tried to catch hold of them, both of them fled away and her search by the accused ended in vain and thereafter the wife of the accused did not return to the matrimonial home and therefore, the accused had vengeance to wreak against the deceased, four days later, on 18.9.2003 at 3.00 a.m., when the deceased, who is a milk vendor came with the milk can on the Padavedu-Kamandalapuram mud road, near the land belonging to Elumalai, the accused with an intention to kill him, took out Koduval and inflicted incised wounds on the front sides of upper part of neck, just below the chin on his later side of mid left leg later side of upper left leg below right knee medial side back of mid of right forearm and on the back of lower of left forearm and thereby caused the instantaneous death and thus, committed the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC.

(3.) ON conclusion of the examination of the prosecution witnesses as referred to above, when the accused was questioned under Section 313(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code with regard to the incriminating materials appearing against him in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, he denied each and every incriminating material as false and pleaded not guilty. However, no witness was examined and no document was marked on the side of the defence.