The judgment emphasizes the importance of eyewitness accounts, dying declarations, and medical evidence in establishing guilt in criminal cases, particularly in cases of violent attacks.

S. Nagamuthu, J.

The appellant, sole accused in S.C. No. 119 of 2013 on the file of the learned Sessions Judge, Kancheepuram district at Chengalpattu, who, stood convicted for offence under Section 302 I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs. 50,000/- in default to undergo simple imprisonment for six months 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. The deceased in this case was one Vidhya, aged about 21 years. She had studied upto plus two. Her father died many years before her death. She was brought up by her mother and brother. She was residing with them at Parameswaran Nagar, Adhambakkam, Chennai. She was working in a browsing center known as “Sri Browsing Center” situated at Thiruvalluvar Main Road, Adhambakkam, Chennai.

2.2. Earlier, she had fallen in love with one Robin. Later she realized that Robin was not a good man as he had lot of bad habits. Therefore, she put a full stop with Robin. It was only thereafter, she started working in the browsing center.

2.3. The accused Mr. Vijay Basker, a young man, aged 31 years, used to visit the browsing center frequently. In that process, he started speaking to the deceased. Treating him as a customer the deceased addressed him as brother. But the accused took it otherwise. He managed to get the mobile number of the deceased and started talking to her over cell-phone from the month of August, 2012. During the said talk, on one occasion, the accused told that he had developed love for her and he wanted to marry her. This proposal was not initially agreeable to the deceased. But the accused told her that if she did not accept the said love and proposal for marriage, he would commit suicide. Because of the said pressure, the deceased also started responding positively. Thus the love affair between the accused and the deceased went on smoothly for some time. This was not known initially to their respective parents. But the accused wantonly leaked out the information to the aunt of the deceased. Thus, it came to the knowledge of the mother of the deceased, her aunt and other family members and also to the family members of the accused. Both the family members accepted the said love affair and they also agreed to celebrate the marriage between the deceased and the accused.

2.4. After the above understanding between the two families, the accused started taking the deceased frequently outside for amusement. When this came to the knowledge of the family members of the deceased they warned her not to frequently go with the accused until the marriage was over. On one occasion, when the accused wanted her to come with him from the browsing center for amusement, the deceased refused. She told that her mother and family members warned her not to go with him frequently. Then the accused called the family members of the deceased and shouted at them. They, in turn spoke to the mother of the accused. The accused wanted to celebrate the marriage immediately but the family members of the deceased told that marriage could be celebrated after three months.

2.5. When this was going on, on 30.01.2013 in the usual course, the deceased had gone to the browsing center and she was involved in her duty. Between 1.30 p.m. and 1.45 p.m. the accused came to the browsing center. He did not entered into the browsing center, instead, he was standing outside. On noticing the accused standing outside, the deceased came out of the browsing center and wanted him to come inside the browsing center. But the accused refused and instead he told that he was waiting for his mother, who was on her way to meet the deceased. Therefore, the deceased went into the browsing center. Then the accused disappeared from the said place. When the deceased was again engaged in her work, the accused suddenly emerged and get into the browsing center. He was holding a bottle containing a liquid (later on it