The main legal point established in the judgment is the importance of complete and admissible statements by the accused, the reliability of identification evidence, and the rejection of the theory of a foisted case.

Mockett, J.

1. Accused 1 and 2 together with one Guddi Peeran were charged before the learned Sessions Judge of Cuddappah with the murder on 12th March 1939 of a woman Golla Nagamma. Guddi Peeran who was accused 3 was acquitted; accused 1 and 2 were convicted and sentenced to death and they now appeal. The plan Ex. P indicates roughly the scene of Nagammas death. She lives at Venkatapuram which is 2i miles from Prodattur. On the 12th March, some time before midday, she was alivE.P.W. 3, her husband, said that she gave him his food before he left for Prodattur, and P.W. 2, her sister, was with her in her house on that morning. Some time after noon she was found dead, having been throttled. There is no doubt whatever that she met her death at about midday on the 12th. No cross-examination was addressed to her sister, P.W. 2, or to her husband, P.W. 3, to suggest that the deceased had in fact met her death long before noon on the 12th, even so early as late on the previous night. This aspect requires a passing reference because the Lady Sub-Assistant Surgeon, relying largely on statements in text-books, was inclined to say that from the appearance of blisters on the body death must have taken place from 22 to 35 hours prior to her examination which was at 7 A.M. on the 13th. Even 22 hours before 7 A.M. when blisters were seen on the body would mean, if the doctors premises are correct, that the woman was alive in the early hours of the 12th; and 36 hours before would mean that she met her death on the 11th.

2. Theoretical evidence of this description is not of value unless it is exhaustive with regard to all possible circumstances. This body had been left in a March sun from about noon to sundown on the 12th, if the prosecution story is correct, and all night in the open air. The text books do not deal with circumstances such as these, but ordinary experience shows that in those circumstances decomposition sets in with great rapidity. It is notorious that bodies are burnt or buried in this country with in a few hours of death. We should require the clearest possible evidence of the time when blisters appear under circumstances such as those before us in order to prefer the deductions based on such theories to the clearest evidence of the fact that this woman was alive late in the morning of the 12th. There is no question in our minds that she met her death at about noon on that day. It is clear also from the medical evidence that she was strangled. P.W. 2, Sayamma, claims to have witnessed Nagammas death. She bears out P.W. 3, the husband, who says that he had gone to Prodattur on the morning of the 12th for work. P.W. 2s story proceeds as follows : The deceased was wearing, as was her custom, on her body gold katlu, gold kantini gundulu, gold thalakulu, gold rettakadiyam, gold bendu kammalu, "gold upper earrings and silver kala kadiyalu. P.W. 2 took the buffaloes out leaving her sister in the house. She grazed the buffaloes, brought them back, collected the buffalo dung and stacked it. A little before noon she returned home and told her sister that she had stacked the collected buffalo dung near the palmyrah tope. The deceased left, bidding P.W. 2 to follow after she had her food. When she left the deceased was wearing the jewels mentioned.

3. After her meal P.W. 2 went to the scene and states that she saw accused 1 "accompanied by two strangers" throttling her sister. Her conduct was then just what one would expect of a little girl, namely she became afraid and ran home and reported the matter to her aunt and three other persons who have not been examined. There is however ample evidence on the record that this little girl at once reported to her aunt and told her what she had seen. P.W. 6, Chinna Bali, bears out the latter part of P.W. 2s statement. He says that P.W. 2 came crying and told P.W. 5 that accused 1 and two strangers were throttling and killing her sister. It is convenient to mention here that the examination-