JUDGMENT :- This appeal has been filed by Valentino Esperdio de Souza who has been found guilty by the Additional Sessions Judge at Margao under Sections 309 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment and life imprisonment concurrently. The charge against the accused was that at about 9 a.m. on 4-11-1965 he jumped into a well in the backyard of his parents' house together with his 15 months' old daughter Blanche with the object of committing suicide and murdering Blanche.

2. The convict is the son of PW 5 Joaquim Xavier de Souza and PW 6 Assuciana F. Lobo who are residents of Salvador do Mundo. The family is in extreme penury condition. Joaquim Xavier was once a seaman but he quitted service about 4 years ago. He had no source of income during the days of the tragic occurrence and the convict Valentino had been out of job for more than a year by then Valentino had arranged for his marriage all by himself. The relations between his parents and his wife Ana Rita Fernandes were none too happy. Ana Rita had been told by her mother-in-law, much before the present occurrence, to go to the village of her parents and she had actually left for that vi

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