Sanjay Kumar, J.

1. By judgment dated 28.03.2011 in Sessions Case No.210 of 2006, the learned III Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court), Ongole, convicted A1 under Section 302 IPC for the murder of Gudipati Hanumantha Rao and sentenced her to life imprisonment apart from paying a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default of which she had to suffer simple imprisonment for three months. A2 and A4 were acquitted of the charge under Sections 302 r/w 114 IPC and the case against A3 abated due to his death. Be it noted that A4 is the husband of A1 while A2 is his elder sister and A3 is his maternal uncle. Aggrieved by the conviction and sentence visited upon her, A1 is in appeal under Section 374(2) CrPC.

2. By order dated 05.12.2016, this Court granted conditional bail to the appellant/A1 pending disposal of this appeal.

3. The case of the prosecution was that A1 threw acid on the deceased at 5.00 AM on 12.05.2005, whereupon he suffered burns and ultimately died on 14.05.2005. She was accordingly charged with his murder. A2 to A4 were charged with abetting A1 in the commission of the offence. A1 to A4 however denied the charges and claimed to be tried. During the trial, the prosecution examined 15 witnesses and marked 16 exhibits in evidence. The defence did not adduce any oral evidence, but marked contradictions in the Section 161 CrPC statement of P.Ws.1 and 2 as Exs.D1 to D6. Case properties were shown as M.Os.1 to 7.

4. Salient points emerging from the evidence may be noted.

5. P.W.1, the wife of the deceased, stated that her husband died at about 8.30 PM on 14.05.2005. One year prior to his death, he developed illicit intimacy with A1. Prior to that, he had illicit intimacy with A2. A4 came to know about the illicit intimacy of P.W.1s husband with A1 a month prior to the incident. A2, A3 and A4 came to their house and quarrelled with her husband in this regard and threatened him with dire consequences. The deceased asked A4 to control his wife, A1. On 12.05.2005 at about 4.30 AM, P.W.4 came to her house and woke up her husband for engagement of their tractor for transport of Subabul wood. Her husband asked P.W.4 to wake up the driver of the tractor and take it for transportation of the wood. At about 5.00 AM on the same day, her husband left the house to answer the call of nature. He went to Marripalem road and returned in fifteen minutes in a hurried manner. She found him with burn injuries on his face, chest, abdomen and legs. She enquired with him as to who caused him such injuries and he informed her that A1 had poured acid on his face and other parts of the body. He informed her that he found three other persons along with A1 and that all of them went away from the scene. He asked her to bring her elder brother (P.W.2) to go to the hospital for treatment. Immediately, she went to the house of P.W.2 and brought him. She, her brother (P.W.2) and her husband went to the Government Headquarters Hospital, Ongole, by motorcycle. After he was admitted in the hospital, the police came there and recorded his statement. The Doctor advised them to take the injured to Guntur Government General Hospital for better treatment as his condition was critical. Then they took her husband to Srinivasa Private Hospital, Guntur. He was provided medical treatment there for two days and on the third day of the incident he succumbed to the injuries in that private hospital. P.W.1 identified M.O.1 and M.O.2 as the clothes of the deceased. In her cross-examination, she stated that the police visited her village for the first time on 18.05.2005 in connection with the incident. She said that she was examined by the police at about 4.30 PM on 12.05.2005 in Guntur for the first time. Only the police and the doctor were present with her husband in the room for about twenty minutes when they examined him. Her husband lost consciousness i