S. NAGAMUTHU, J.

The appellant, sole accused in S.C.No.491 of 2010 on the file of the learned VI Additional Sessions Judge, Chennai, who stands convicted for offences under Sections 364 and 302 r/w Section 201 I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and pay a fine of Rs.50,000/-and in default to undergo simple imprisonment for six months for the offence under Section 364 I.P.C. and to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs.50,000/-and in default to undergo simple imprisonment for six months for the offence under Section 302 I.P.C. r/w Section 201 I.P.C., has come up with this appeal, challenging the said conviction and sentence.

2. The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows:

2.1. P.W.4 and P.W.1 are the husband and wife respectively. They got married in the year 2000. It was a love marriage. Out of the said wedlock, a female and a male child were born. At the time of occurrence, the female child “Nivedita” was aged eight and half years and the male child “Adithya” was hardly aged three and half years (hereinafter referred to as the deceased). They were residing at 8/26, second cross street, Padmavathy Nagar, Virugambakkam, Chennai.

2.2. Between 2006-2009, P.W.4 was working as the Area Sales Manager in Tata AIG Insurance Company. The appellant / accused-Miss “Poovarasi” was also working in the same company during the said period as an Assistant Sales Manager. In the year 2009, P.W.4 resigned his job in Tata AIG Insurance Company and joined the Reliance Insurance Company as Zonal Manager at T.Nagar, Chennai. In the same year, the accused also resigned her job from Tata AIG Insurance Company. During the month of July 2009, the accused approached P.W.4 seeking help to get her a job in the Reliance Insurance Company. P.W.4 accordingly, made arrangements and finally she got a job. In the interregnum period, they developed a close relationship with each other and they used to speak frequently over phone. During such conversation, the accused informed P.W.4 that all her family members, such as her father, mother, elder brother and younger brother died in a motor vehicle accident and thus there was nobody to support her (later, on verification, it turned out that the said statement was false). P.W.4 developed a sympathy towards the accused on account of the said information. The accused, in the meantime, developed a partnership business with her friend under the name and style “Shiv Well Creators”. P.W.4 helped her in developing the said business. P.W.4 had also extended financial assistance to the accused. In due course, the said friendship developed into illicit intimacy between P.W.4 and the accused. They had sexual intercourse on many occasions. They also used to go to hotels and other resorts. Thus, the accused managed to develop immense confidence and faith in the mind of P.W.4 towards her.

2.3. It was also the habit of the accused to please P.W.4 by taking the son of P.W.4 Adithya with her for shopping and to get him some eatables. On all these occasions, she used to promptly bring back the deceased to P.W.4.

2.4. While this relationship was continuing, on one occasion, the accused told P.W.4 that her uncle was pressurising her to agree for a marriage proposal. She enquired with P.W.4 as to what she should do in such a situation. P.W.4 told her very casually that she should go for marriage. This was not to the liking of the accused. The accused was under the impression that P.W.4 would marry her as he had sexual relationship with her and also love for her.

2.5. While so, in the month of June, 2010, P.W.4 went to Italy. The email I.D. and the password of P.W.4 were known to his wife (P.W.1) Mrs.Ananda lakshmi. After few days, P.W.1 casually opened the email inbox of P.W.4. She found a message from one Poovarasi (later identified as the accused), which read as follows:

“I missing you a lot. I feel very depressed. I would like to chat with you online – Poovarasi”.

2.6. On seeing th