The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for corroborative evidence to support accomplice testimony, the admissibility of circumstantial evidence, and the importance of establishing the identity of the victim and the cause of death.

THOMAS, J.

A pretty damsel was snared into a trap by her employer and two other men and killed her by filling her mouth with lethal poison. Her corpse was disposed of in a far away jungle as denouement of the plot. This is the hub of the prosecution story. Among the three conspirators, two became accused and the third was transposed as approver on being tendered with a pardon. Sessions Court convicted the two accused arraigned before it. They have filed these two appeals separately.

2. The story narrated by the prosecution is punctuated with love, sex, adultery, deception etc. Appellant - Sathyaseelan (A1) was proprietor of a weaving mill in which men and women were employed. Geethakumari was one of the employees in the mill. A1's wife was not a healthy woman and the spouses had no issues. A1 utilised opportunities to flirt with Geethakumari and eventually cultivated illicit sexual relationship with her by impressing upon her that he would marry her. The wife of the appellant had a penumbra of suspicion regarding this affair. She reacted violently at it. On a particular occasion she even slapped on the cheek of Geethakumari. But such adversities did not deter Geethakumari from continuing her intimacy with A1. She applied pressure on him to have a ceremony of marriage with her at least by executing a registered document. For some more time A1 succeeded in his procrastinate tactics. However, at one stage Geethakumari gave an ultimatum that unless he would marry her she would undertake a fast in front of his house. As he found that he could no longer run with the hare and hunt with the hound, the idea of liquidation of Geethakumari stemmed in his mind. Himself along with A2 (his brother-in-law) and his friend (P.W. 7) met in secrecy and chalked out a scheme to finish her off.

3. In implementation of the scheme A1 decoyed Geethakumari to a vacant building owned by him. It was in the morning on 25-5-1984. Without sensing any danger, but redolent with hope that she would soon become the bride of A1 at least through a registered document, she went to the vacant building in nuptial costumes. But A1, after seeing her, could not resist his thirst and allured her to have a liaison with her in the next room. A2 wanted to take advantage of the situation and hence he also insisted for a go with her. She raised protestation against it, but A1 cautioned her that A2 could ruin the matrimonial prospects unless he too was satiated. Against all her importunities she was finally prevailed upon to yield to him also. Out of fatigue, she asked for a glass of water A1 gave her tea which was already prepared mixing with poisonous insecticide called "ekalax". But she spat out the first dose as she felt some mal taste. A1 and A2 could not wait further to reach the acme of their scheme. So, A1 forcibly opened her mouth and emptied the bottle of poison into the mouth. Both A1 and A2 then gagged her mouth. She struggled to spit it out, but the pressure was so irresistible that the liquid percolated into her system. In no time she slumped down, showed some fits and slouched her head.

4. The three conspirators locked up the room in which the dead body lay. A1 removed her gold chain from the neck of the dead body (the locket in the chain contained a small photo of the deceased). A taxi car was arranged through P.W. 7 and the dead body was stuffed into the dicky. They proceeded to a farther distance covering many places and reached the cashew grove in palode. A1 and A2 carried the dead body into the interior of the jungle and dropped it there. As reward A1 paid Rs. 1,000/- to P.W. 7 who in turn paid Rs. 500/- as taxi charges to P.W. 8. Conspirators then thought that with disposal of her dead body Geethakumari affair stood closed once and for all. But later developments proved that by such disposal a cornucopia of events has been set store temporarily.

5. Two days later, some forest officials came across a decomposed dead body of an adult female insi