N. DHINAKAR, J)

The accused appeals.

2. The sole appellant, who hereinafter will be referred to as "the accused", challenges his conviction and sentence. He was tried before the learned I Additional District and Sessions Judge -cum- Chief Judicial Magistrate, Salem, in S.C.NO. 155 of 1997. The allegation against him is that at 9.30 a.m. on 20.6.1996 he cut Balajothi on various parts of the body and as a result of the said cut injuries, the said Balajothi breathed her last at 11.40 a.m. at Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Hospital, Salem, where she was taken for treatment for the said injuries. The learned Sessions Judge, on convicting him, sentenced him to imprisonment for life for the offence of murder. Hence, the appeal.

3. Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts necessary to dispose of the appeal, can be briefly summarised as follows:-

P.W.1 is the stepbrother of the deceased and P.W.3 is the maternal uncle of P.W.1 and the deceased. They were residents of Karungalkadu and the father of the deceased is an agriculturist. The mother of P.W.1 died while he was young and after the death of his mother, P.W.1's father married Dhanalakshmi as his second wife. Balajothi was born