Koshy, J.

Accused, two in number, was charge-sheeted for offence punishable under section 302 and 189 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code for alleging murdering one Aleema, sister of the first accused. Second accused is the father's younger brother of A1 and deceased. PW1 Amina is the sister of A1. PW11 Aisha is another sister of A1 and deceased. A1 had three other brothers also. Deceased, PW1 and accused were living in the tharawad house with the mother. Motive for the crime, alleged by the prosecution, is gifting of some landed property to the deceased by her father. According to the prosecution, father had assigned 55 cents of property to Aleema to the consternation of Alavi and his three brothers. They had made every attempt to thwart the endeavour of the old man to assign property to the daughters, but, could not succeed. Alavi had strongly resented the act of his father giving property to Aleema and he had declared that Aleema would not be permitted to enjoy her property. On14.2.1999 Aleema brought Firoz (PW10) and Subramanian (PW2), her co-workers in a brick kiln, for doing some work in the property assigned to her. In the morning, A1 Alavi and A2 Hamza Kurikkal came and made an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the work done by Firoz and Subramanian. At about 4.00 p.m., Alavi and Hamza Kurikkal came there and had a wordy altercation with Aleema who was supervising the work. As instigated by Hamza Kurikkal, Alavi came near Aleema, hold her neck, whipped up a knife and stabbed her on the neck. Thereafter, Alavi felled Aleema down, pinned her to the ground pressing his right knee on her chest. Alavi brandished the knife towards Firoz and Subramanian and threatened them to cause their death if they refused to leave the place. They scampered and Alavi slit his sister's throat with the knife. Ameena (PW1) who came out of the house for ablutions for the prayer saw the incident. She went to the police station situated nearby and gave Ext.P1 F.I. statement. Consequently, Ext.P1 (a) F.I.R. was registered. PW15 Circle Inspector of Police conducted inquest on the body, seized the material objects including MO1 knife, searched the house of accused and recovered the blood stained cloths (MOs 2 and 3) of A1, arrested the accused, questioned the witnesses and recorded their statements. PW16 Circle Inspector of Police completed investigation and filed final report.

2. PW9 doctor conducted autopsy on the body of Aleema on 15.2.1999 and issued Ext.P10 postmortem certificate. He has noted the following injuries in Ext.P10:

"1. Incised wound 3.8 x 0.3 c.m. back root of neck slightly oblique upper inner and 1 c.m. left of mid line. 1 c.m. behind the upper inner end on the lower margin. Another incised wound extended downwards and inwards 2 x 0.3 c.m. x 4.5 c.m. muscle plane for 4 c.m. Both ends sharp.

2. Incised wound 5.2 x 0.6 c.m. right side of face, superficial both and sharp on the jaw border right side, back end on the angle of jaw (bevelled downwards).

3. Incised wound 7 x 1 to 2 c.m. right side of neck back end 5.5 c.m. below ear, lobule, front end 1 c.m. below chin 0.5 c.m. right to mid line stissue deep.

4. Incised wound 5.5 x 0.1 x 0.5 c.m. right side of neck oblique upper end 0.8 c.m. below middle of injury No.2. The upper half was superficial and lower half 1 c.m. deep.

5. Incised wound 12 x 5 c.m. front and sides of neck both ends sharp cut left end 1 c.m. below ear lobule and the upper margin on the jaw border with bewelling downwards. Right end 10.5 c.m. below ear lobule. On the right side, 2 c.m. below the upper margin, there was a side cut for 1 c.m. and on the left side 1.5 c.m. below the upper margin had a side cut for 1 c.m.

6. Incised wound 9 x 1 c.m. mid line on the root of neck.

7. Superficial incised wound 2 x 1 c.m. right side of top of chest 8 c.m. outer to mid line.

8. Superficial incised wound 1 x 0.5 c.m. x 1 c.m. outer to injury No.7 in the same line (top of chest).

9. Four contused abrasion 0