Probative force of extra-judicial confession.

Madhusudan Rao, J.- The sole accused in Sessions Case No. 10 of 1978 on the file of the Additional Sessions Judge- cum-Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Hyderabad, is the appellant. He was convicted under section 302, Indian Penal Code, and was sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life on the ground that he caused death of the Galla Narayana aged about 70 years in the night intervening the 17th and 18th of April, 1978.

2. The case of the prosecution is: Galla Narayana, the deceased in this case (who will hereinafter be referred to as the deceased) was a resident of Ameerpet village in Ibraheempatnam taluk of Hyderabad district. After the death of his first wife, he married Balamani (P.W. 3). About seven years before the occurrence, the deceased employed Jogu Yadaiah, the accused, as his farm-servant. Illicit intimacy was developed between P.W. 3 and the accused. One day by the time the deceased returned from Hyderabad City, he found P.W. 3 and the accused in a compromising position. From that time, the deceased was finding fault with P.W. 3 off and on even though she was not faulty and was quarrelling with the accused very often. Vexed with the attitude of the deceased, the accused gave up service under him some time in the year 1977. When the deceased demanded the accused to pay back the amount taken by him in advance, the accused refused to pay the amount. The deceased got a panchayat held before the Sarpanch (P.W. 6). It was found at the panchayat by the Sarpanch that the accused had to pay a sum of Rs. 500 to the deceased. P.W. 6 said that the accused might either pay the entire amount of Rs. 500 or discharge the same by further service under the deceased. The accused agreed to the latter course and worked under the deceased for a few more months and gave up service under the deceased about six months prior to the date of the occurrence when the balance payable by him was about Rs. 300.

3. After giving up service under the deceased, the accused was damaging the electric pump sets fixed to the wells of the deceased in the fields. He was also breaking the ploughs of the deceased when the ploughs were left in the fields. The deceased was complaining to the Police Patel (P.W. 1) against the accused and, as advised by the Police Patel (P.W. 1), he did not give any reports to the Police.

4. On 17th April, 1978, Balamani (P.W. 3), and her children went to the temple to participate in the Srirama Navami Festival after their night meals. The deceased left bis house to the field to see the crane, which was kept near the well in his field (that day the deceased got a crane for removing the mud from the well the next day). There is a ‘Vagu’ between the well of the deceased and another known as “Mangaloni Bhavi”. At this ‘Vagu’, the accused attacked the deceased and did him to death by squeezing his neck and strangling him with a kerchief at about 10 p.m. Kandi Venkataiah (P.W. 2), a resident of Ameerpet, saw the accused attacking the deceased near the ‘vagu’ on his way home from his well, which is at a distance of about 50 yards from the ‘vagu’.

5. As the deceased did not return home even by 12 midnight, P.W. 3 went along with a neighbour, Fakira, to the well for the deceased, but could not find him. Early in the morning following that night, P.W. 3 and her son, Yadaiah (P.W. 4) searched for the deceased and found the dead body of the deceased lying near “Mangaloni Bhavi” with his upper-cloth tied tightly round his neck. P.W. 4 immediately reported the matter to the Police Patel (P.W. 1), who sent a report under Exhibit P-1 to the Police at Maisaram.

6. The Head-Constable of Police, Maisaram (P.W. 9) received Exhibit P-1 at about 10 a.m. and registered a case.

7. Shortly after P.W. 1 sent Exhibit P-1 to the Police, P.W. 2 met him and told him that he saw the accused and the deceased quarrelling with each other and the accused beating the deceased the previous night near “Mangaloni Bhavi”. P.W. 1 thereupon sent a further report under Exhi