JUDGMENT

M. Karpagavinayagam, J. - The appellant was tried and convicted for the offence under Section 302 IPC in S.C. No. 93/1987 on the me of District and Sessions Judge, Chengalput and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment.

2. The gravamen of the indictment against the appellant is that on 16-10-1986 at 10.30 P.M. inside the house of the appellant, situated near the TNEB Sub-station, Thirupporur, the appellant on suspecting the fidelity of his wife Malarvizhi (deceased) threw the stone of considerable weight on her head while she was sleeping and as a result his wife died later in the Government Hospital. Chengalput.

3. The facts that could be discerned from the materials found available in this case could be summarised as follows:

The appellant Venkatesan is working as a watchman in a High School at Thirupporur. His first wife died. Therefore the appellant requested P.W. 1 Thiru Rajabathar, who is a resident of same place, to give his sister Malarvizhi in marriage with him. The said Malarvizhi though got married to one Mr. Kuppan, since there was misunderstanding between the spouses her marriage was cancelled and so she came back to the house of her brother P.W. 1 and stayed alongwith him.

P.W. 1 initially refused for the marriage alliance. However he agreed for the same since teachers working in the school in which the appellant was a watchman approached and requested to arrange for the marriage of his sister Malarvizhi with the appellant. Therefore, the marriage between the appellant and the deceased Malarvizhi was performed two years prior to this occurrence.

Both husband and wife were living happily in a separate house at Thandalam area situated behind the TNEB Office at Thinipporur for some time. In course of time, the deceased Malarvizhi developed some illicit intimacy with some other persons in the same area. So, due to this, misunderstanding developed between the spouses. Frequently, the appellant used to beat the deceased and sent her to the house of P.W. 1. Six months prior to the occurrence a male baby was born to the spouses. Even thereafter, the appellant suspected the chastity of the deceased and used to send her to the house of P.W. 1 on several occasions. But some days later, the appellant went to the house of P.W. 1 and took her back:

The appellant working as watchman in the school would use to go to school for doing work at 7 P.M. and come back to the house at 7.00 A.M. in the morning. Taking advantage of the absence of the appellant, the deceased used to go to other places and come back home before the appellant comes to his house.

The fateful occurrence took place on 19-10-1986 at about 11.00 P.M. The appellant after finishing his work in the school unusually came back home at 11.00 P.M. At that time the deceased was not found available in the house. The house was found open. After a short while the deceased came home from the neighbouring house. The appellant asked her as to where she had gone in the night hours. She replied "I would go anywhere and come back at anytime, who are you to question me?" So saying, she went inside the house and took bed in a mat. The appellant got up and then took out a stone found near the house and threw it on the head. When she cried, the neighbours P.W. 2 Thiru Arumugam and his wife P.W. 3 rushed to her house and found that the victim Malarvizhi gasping for life with bleeding injuries on her head.

Immediately thereafter both P.Ws. 2 and 3 went to P.W. 1's house whose house is situated at a distance of two furlongs and woke him up. They informed him that there was a quarrel between the appellant and the deceased, with the result there is an unfortunate incident had occurred. P.W. 1 rushed to the house of the deceased. In the house there was no light. So. P.W. 1 lit the chimney lamp and found the victim Malarvizhi was lying down in a mat with serious injuries on the head. He also found blood scattered on her mouth and nose. She was found unconscious and she only raised a