The admissibility of confessional statements under Section 27 of the Evidence Act and the requirement for voluntary confessions.

Mockett, J.

1. The appellant has been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of one Allu Akkamma by throttling her on 4th December 1938, and it is well to remember that the charge is specific, that the murder was caused by throttling. On the morning of 4th December the deceased was proceeding from Goladi, a village which will be found on the south of the plan, Ex. M, towards a village called Yedlavalasa, which is not marked on the plan, but which it is conceded is beyond Mettavalasa which is to the north of the plan. The learned Judge has summarized the facts in this case very fully and we may say at the outset that we are largely in agreement with him with regard to his findings of fact. The deceased set out on that morning according to P.W. 5, her brother-in-law, at about 8 A.M. and she was seen about one furlong from Goladi village walking in front of a man who P.W. 16 was almost but not quite certain was the accused. She was wearing a black sari similar to M.O. 2, for that is no doubt what P.W. 16 means when he says that she was wearing M.O. 2. Her later history is spoken to by P.Ws. 17 and 18. P.W. 17 says that at about 9 oclock he saw her near the uplands between two hillocks. He says he was going to Goladi with change to pay coolies. He also saw the accused. He was 100 yards in front of the deceased when he saw him. If that is so, between the place where P.W. 16 saw the accused and the deceased and the hillocks the accused had overtaken the deceased. P.W. 18 who also was in the neighbourhood of the hillocks says that he saw the accused going towards Mettavalasa and behind him a woman with a black sari similar to M.O. 2. He says he saw P.W. 17 going towards Goladi. We agree with the learned Sessions Judge that the evidence is more than sufficient to show that on that morning the deceased left her house and proceeded along the road, and we think too that the accused was sufficiently identified as walking at one time behind and at a later stage in front of her. That was the last heard of the deceased. She did not return to her village and there seems to be little doubt that the next seen of her was by P.W. 4, a little boy, who on Tuesday 6th December went to the neighbourhood of P.W. 3s field, which is adjacent to the road, to cut grass. He said he saw a person lying down with a black sari covered over the face in the cholam field of P.W. 3. He went away because he thought it was P.W. 3 watching for persons who had gone to cub grass without his permission. P.W. 3 on the Thursday next went to the field and there discovered the body, or rather half the body, of the deceased. She has been satisfactorily identified and no argument was seriously put before us that that was not her body. But by that time the body was in two pieces, one-half of which was found a considerable distance to the west of the point where the upper half was found, which was at the point B, on the plan near P.W. 3s field.

2. It is naturally important to ascertain the cause of death in a case of murder. P.W. 2, the Assistant Surgeon of Bobbili Local Fund Hospital, has given evidence about it. He has described the state of this body, which it must be remembered was in two pieces, and he quite definitely says : "I cannot give the cause of death owing to the fragmentary nature of the corpse and the advanced nature of decomposition." The tongue was protruding apparently. He says that this might have been due to strangling, but it might equally well have been due to decomposition. He does however make one interesting statement, namely that there was a stab on this woman, three-fourths of an inch long, on the left side of the chest between the sixth and seventh ribs. He was unable to trace it further owing to the fact that the lung underneath it had decomposed. He says that might have been caused by the tusk of a wild boar. In this connexion it is evident there are wild boars in the neighbourhood, because after seeing what was supposed to be P.W.