1. The first accused in Sessions Case No. 4 of 1950 in the court of session at Kottayam, is the appellant. The second accused, who was tried along with the first accused, was found to be not guilty and he has been acquitted. There is no appeal presented on behalf of the State in respect of that order. The charge against the first accused was that he committed murder by killing his wife. The learned sessions judge accepted the case for the prosecution, held that the first accused was guilty under S. 301 of the Travancore Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, subject to confirmation by the High Court. The records have been submitted to this court for confirmation, and the appeal preferred by the accused was also argued by his learned counsel.

2. The case disclosed by the evidence for the prosecution was that the dead body of the wife of the first accused was found hanging from a branch of a jack fruit tree in the compound adjacent to the house where the first accused and his wife resided. In that house was also residing a widow, whose husband was the maternal uncle of the deceased wife of the first accused. The case for the prosecution was