Raja Vijayaraghavan.J.

1. This appeal, filed by the sole accused in S.C.No.159 of 2006 on the file of the Court of Sessions, Kottayam, is directed against the judgment, conviction and sentence passed against him by the Additional Sessions Judge (Ad hoc)-I, Kottayam. He challenges the judgment dated 30.11.2006 as per which he has been convicted and sentenced u/s 449 302, 397 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code.

2. A conspectus of the prosecution case is as under:- Deceased Ammini, was residing alone in a building bearing door No. NP XIII/63 in Erumeli North Village of Mundakayom Village. On 13.7.2005, Ammini participated in a prayer meeting held at the house of her son Mathew ( PW1 ). The prayer was over by about 6.30 P.M. and Ammini returned back home. PW3, Kamalamma, a friend and neighbor of deceased Ammini and also the Secretary of Koruthodu Navajeevan Kudumbasree, went to the house of Ammini at 10.30 AM on the next day , for discussing some matter with her. Nobody answered her call and when she looked inside through the open door, found Ammini lying on the floor of her house in a pool of blood. PW3 raised an alarm and alerted the neighbors. The son of the deceased Ammini, Mathew, was intimated and he rushed to the house. He went to the Mundakkayom police station and gave Ext.P1 statement to PW25 based on which Ext.P2 crime was registered. PW25 intimated PW27, the Circle Inspector of Police who arrived at the scene and started off with the investigation. Ext.P2 inquest was conducted over the dead body of Ammini and material objects were collected from the scene as well as the body of the deceased. Since there were no occurrence witnesses and the murder was a mystery, the Investigating Officer sought for the assistance of the Finger Print expert, Scientific expert, dog squad etc., to obtain further clues. Initially, PW1 was the main suspect, as the persons having acquaintance with the deceased gave statements which revealed that the relationship between the deceased and PW1 was extremely troubled. A search was conducted in the house of PW1 to find the weapon of the offence but it did not yield any result. During investigation, when it was realized that the appellant herein, who is the brother of the wife of PW1, used to reside with PW1 at his residence about 20 days prior to the occurrence and that he had left the house of PW1 on 13.7.2005, the Investigating Officer took steps to locate his whereabouts. Information was received that the accused was working in a Sawdust factory run by PW14, Razak at Kannur. PW27 proceeded to Kannur and the appellant was found working there. He was taken into custody and brought to the Kanjirappally police station on 11.8.2005 itself. Finger prints were taken from the accused for comparison with the finger prints seen on a drinking glass found in the house of deceased Ammini. When the same was compared by PW15, a finger print expert, it was found that the prints matched. On being satisfied that the accused was involved in the offence he was arrested and questioned. On questioning, the accused is alleged to have confessed that the gold chain and gold ring of the deceased had been sold to PW8, a jewellery shop owner. On the strength of the said disclosure, the gold chain belonging to the deceased was recovered at the instance of the accused. It was further revealed that the accused had exchanged the gold ring with another gold ring which was recovered from his bag. On the basis of the above investigation, PW27 completed the investigation and laid the final report against the accused before the Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Kanjirappally.

3. Committal proceedings were initiated by the learned Magistrate and the accused was sent up to the Court of Sessions to stand trial for the offence u/s 499, 302, 397 and 201 of the IPC from where the case was made over to the Additional Sessions Judge (Ad hoc)-I, Kottayam. The accused faced the trial while in custody. Since the accused was not defende