JUDGMENT :

C. Praveen Kumar, J.

1. The sole accused, who is the appellant herein was tried for the offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 [for short, “I.P.C.”], for causing the death of one M. Devarajulu on 22.04.2014 at about 9.30 P.M.

2. Vide Judgment dated 17.06.2016, the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Chittoor convicted the accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentenced him to suffer Imprisonment for Life and to pay a fine of Rs.500/- [Rupees Five Hundred only], in default, to suffer Simple Imprisonment for Two Months.

3. The facts, in issue, are as under:-

(a) P.W.1 is the wife of the deceased while P.W.2 is the mother-in-law of P.W.1. The other witnesses are residents of the said village and they were known to the accused and the deceased. One Anjali, is said to be the wife of the accused. She was residing three houses away after the house of P.W.1. It is said that since seven years prior to the incident, the said Anjali was having illicit intimacy with the husband of P.W.1. P.W.1 claims to have advised the deceased not to indulge in the said affair, but to no avail. About one year prior to the incident, the said Anjali came to the house of P.W.1 armed with a knife, to kill the deceased. But, the neighbours prevented her from doing so and sent her away.

(b) Two days later, the accused brought the assailants from Gudiyatham to kill her husband. Then, P.W.1 took her husband to her parents’ house and stayed there for ten days. Thereafter, the matter was reported before the caste elders, who chastised the accused.

(c) While things stood thus, on 22.04.2014 at about 7.00 P.M. one Kumar of Pathapeta Village, requested the deceased to come to Eswara Temple at the village to attend TDP Party meeting. Her husband went there. At about 9.30 P.M. her neighbour/Govindamma informed that her husband was hacked by the accused at Eswara Temple. P.W.1 went to the said temple and saw her husband lying in a pool of blood. By that time her husband was dead. She observed hack injury on the right jaw and head and left side of the chin. The people gathered there namely P.Ws.3, 4 and 8, who claimed to have informed P.W.1 that the accused hacked her husband and killed him. She then narrated the incident to one G.Ashok/P.W.6 in Tamil language, who reduced the same in Telugu language and then he read over the contents in Tamil. P.W.1 handed over the said report at Baireddipalle Police Station. Ex.P1 is the Report which bears the signature of P.W.1 and also that of P.W.6. Basing on the said report, P.W.12/Sub-Inspector of Police, registered a case in Crime No.51 of 2014 under Section 302 I.P.C. and issued Ex.P18-First Information Report. Further, investigation in this case was taken up by P.W.13.

(d) According to P.W.13/Inspector of Police, at about 10.15 P.M. he received a phone call from the Sub- Inspector of Police, Baireddipalle with regard to crime. He then left his office and proceeded to scene of offence at 11.00 P.M., received a copy of F.I.R and took up investigation. Later, he along with Sub- Inspector of Police proceeded to scene of offence and found the dead body in pool of blood with severe injuries, in front of Eswara Temple. He examined the dead body under the street lines and got photographed the scene. Anticipating law and order problem, he shifted the body to the Government Hospital, Palamaner and posted a guard at the scene and mortuary.

(e) On 23.04.2014, P.W.13 visited the scene of offence, secured the presence of mediators P.Ws.7 and 9 and prepared a scene observation report which is placed on record as Ex.P5. He also got prepared a rough sketch of the scene of offence, which is marked as Ex.P19. He then left the scene of offence, visited Government Hospital, Palamaner and conducted inquest over the dead body in the presence of P.Ws.9, 10 and L.W.16-S. Rajesh. Ex.P6 is the inquest report. During the inquest, he seized blood stained clothes of the deceased under M.Os.1 to 4. During i