This is an appeal preferred against the convictions and sentences by the learned Sessions Judge of Madurai Division, in Sessions Case No. 163 of 1957.

The facts are brief: The accused Pappathi Ammal is the wife of P.W. 1. They have been living with their children in a compound where there are 4 or 5 houses. Pappathi Ammal had been confined within four weeks before the commission of this offence. It would also appear that she was unwell from diarrhoea and fever after child birth. On account of the poverty and inability to secure other help she had to do her household chores. Therefore, she seems to have been depressed and fed up with her life.

On the night of 28th October, 1957, the landlady P.W. 2 heard the noise of a splash and she woke up and found lights burning in the house of the accused. Therefore, she went and woke up P.W. 1, the husband of the accused, and told him what she had heard. They found the accused missing. They started searching the compound. Then they heard a noise from within the well. They found the accused within the well. They raised an alarm. A crowd of people gathered. A ladder was brought and set inside the well. The accused came out of the wel