C. Praveen Kumar, J.

1. The sole accused in Sessions Case No.12 of 2010 on the file of the Principal Sessions Judge, Ongole, is the appellant herein. He was tried for an offence punishable under section 302 IPC. By judgment, dated 29.10.2010, the Sessions Judge, convicted and sentenced him to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.1000/-, in default to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of three months.

2. The gravamen of the charge against the accused is that, on 18.09.2009, during night time, at the house of the accused, situated at Venkatapuram Village, Giddalur Mandal, the accused caused the death of his wife by hacking her with an axe on her head and neck, leading to her death.

3. The facts, as culled out, from the evidence of prosecution witnesses, are as under:

i. The deceased is the wife of the accused. She was related to PW.3, who was also residing near their house. PWs.5 and 6 are residents of same village. The deceased and accused had three children. PW.4 is the daughter, while Shiva and Ashok were their sons. All of them were living in their house at Venkatapuram. The accused used to quarrel with the deceased by every day by coming to the house in a drunken state. He used to abuse the deceased in filthy language and beat her. The evidence adduced by the prosecution also shows that the accused was having illicit intimacy with one lady belonging to the community of gold smith and on account of it he used to beat the deceased. In the year 2007, the deceased filed a criminal case against the accused before Giddaluru Police Station. Thereafter, a compromise was affected in the presence of PW.5. Subsequent to the compromise, both of them started living together happily and subsequently the criminal case ended in acquittal. It is stated that after the case was ended in acquittal, the accused again started quarrelling with the deceased. On the date of incident, the deceased was lying on a cot with fever. After dusk, PW.4 had her meal. The accused came there in a drunken condition and beat the deceased with stick, she came out of the house and closed the door. The accused remained in the house along with PW4. Thereafter, the accused informed the deceased that he has to go to the forest area for firewood and the deceased may pack food for him to be taken along with him. Then the deceased opened the door and came inside the house, packed food, as requested by the accused. Thereafter, the deceased slept on the cot of Shiva and the accused also slept on the same cot. PW.4 and her brother Ashok also slept on another cot. Some time later, the accused got up on the cot, took an axe from the attic and hacked on the neck and head of the deceased with the said axe. When PW.4 woke up and saw the act of the accused, the accused gave a signal to keep quiet by keeping right hand index finger on his lips. After hacking the deceased, the accused came out of the house along with the axe. Immediately, thereafter, PW.4 went to the house of her junior maternal aunt by name Venkatamma, who was examined as PW.2, and informed about the incident. Immediately, PW.2, along with her husband, PW.3, rushed to the house of the accused and on seeing them the accused ran away from the house. On hearing their cries, the neighbours gathered.

ii. On the early hours of 19.09.2009, PW.1 received a phone call from the village about the death of the deceased. Immediately, he started from Giddalur and proceeded to Venkatapuram on a bike of one Ramana Reddy and on reaching the house of the deceased, found the dead body lying on a cot with injuries, oozing with blood. He enquired the persons present there, including PW.4, as to how the deceased was killed. The accused was not present in the house at that time. After recording the statement of B. Venkateswarlu, who was examined as PW.3 (husband of PW2), he proceeded to the police station and gave a report before PW.9, the Sub-Inspector of Police. Basing on the said report, PW.9 registered a cas