Judgment :

ALTAMAS KABIR, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. These Appeals have been filed by the Appellant questioning the judgment and order dated 4th October, 2007, passed by the Karnataka High Court in Criminal Referred Case No.3 of 2006 and Criminal Appeal No.2408 of 2006 rejecting the Appellant's appeal and confirming the death sentence awarded to him by the Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court VII, Bangalore City, in S.C.No.725 of 1999, by judgment and order dated 26th October, 2006.

3. According to the prosecution, Jayashri, mother of Suresh (P.W.2) and sister of Manjula (P.W.22), was married to one Dr. Maradi Subbaiah who died about two years prior to 28.02.1998 on which date the incident which resulted in S.C.No.725 of 1999 is alleged to have occurred. After the death of her husband, Jayashri and her son Suresh, were staying in premises No.14/8 situated at Dasarahalli, Bhuvaneshwarinagar, Bangalore, as a tenant of one Lalitha Jaya (P.W.8). Suresh was studying in Upper K.G. in Blossom English School. His mother would drop him to school at Bagalkunte at 8.30 a.m. and would bring him back at 1.00 p.m. after classes were over.

4. On 28.2.1998, Jayashri took Suresh to school as usual at 8.30 a.m. and brought him back at 1.00 p.m. and they had lunch together in the house. After lunch, Suresh went out to play with his friends and apart from Jayashri there was no one else in the house. Suresh returned to the house at about 5.00 p.m. and saw the accused, B.A. Umesh, in the hall of the house who introduced himself as "Uncle Venkatesh" and told Suresh that his mother, Jayashri, was possessed by the devil and that he had, therefore, tied her hands and was going to bring a Doctor. The accused then left the house with a bag filled with articles. According to the prosecution, Basvaraju (P.W.10) and Natesh

(P.W.11) saw the accused going out of Jayashri's house with the bag on 28.2.1998 at about 4.30 p.m. Suresh then went into the room and saw his mother lying flat on the ground with blood on the floor and her hands tied together with a sari at one end and the other end of the sari was tied to a window. As she did not respond to his voice, Suresh went to Kusuma Shetty (C.W.7), a neighbour, and told her what he had seen. Kusuma Shetty called Geetha Hegde (C.W.6) and Lalitha Jaya (P.W.8) and together they went near Jayashri's house with Suresh and through the window they saw Jayashri lying on the ground. Lalitha Jaya then called Bylappa (P.W.7), a Police Constable, living in the same locality who telephoned Papanna (P.W.9), the Inspecting Officer, who came to the place of occurrence with Police Constable Garudappa (P.W.6). In the meantime, on being informed, A. Kumar (P.W.14) a Police Constable working in the Dogs Squad, Jagannath (P.W.16), a Police Photographer and R. Narayanappa (P.W.13) a Police Inspector and finger-print expert arrived at the place of occurrence. B.N. Nyamaagowda (P.W.29), the Investigating Officer, found that Jayashri was lying dead on the floor with her genitals exposed and blood oozing from her vagina. The doors of an almirah in the house were open and articles in the house were lying scattered. He prepared a report and sent the same through P.W.6 to the Police Station to register a crime. P.W.6 took the said report to Peenya Police Station and the same was registered as Crime No.108 of 1998. He then prepared a First Information Report and sent the same to Court. A copy of the F.I.R. was also sent to P.W.29, the Investigating Officer. P.W.14 had come from the Dogs Squad with Dhrona, a sniffer dog, who having sniffed the dead body and Jayashri's clothes went towards the pipeline and returned. P.W.16, the Police Photographer, took photographs of the dead body and the scene of offence. P.W.13, the finger-print expert, found finger-prints on a wall clock and also on the handle of the almirah (Exts. P.14 and P.15). P.W.29, thereafter, conducted inquest over the dead body in the presence of Panch witnesses, P.Ws.2, 3 and 4, and sen