JUDGMENT :

R. PONGIAPPAN, J.

Prayer: Criminal Appeal filed under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, against the judgment dated 31.01.2011 passed in S.C. No. 214 of 2009 by the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court No. I), Chengalpattu.

1. The present appeal is directed against the conviction and sentence dated 31.01.2011, passed in S.C. No. 214 of 2009, on the file of the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court No. 1), Chengalpattu.

2. The appellant herein is the sole accused. He stood charged for the alleged offences under Sections 341, 324 and 302 of IPC. The accused denied the charges as false and opted for trial. After full-fledged trial, the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court No. I), Chengalpattu, found the accused guilty of the offences under Sections 324 and 302 of IPC. Accordingly, the appellant was convicted under Section 302 of I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- in default, to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of six months. He was further convicted under Section 324 of I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of one year. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently. However, the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court No. I), Chengalpattu, acquitted the appellant under Section 341 of I.P.C.

3. Challenging the said conviction and sentence, the accused is before this Court, by way of filing the present Criminal Appeal.

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

(i) PW-1 Vani and her husband-Kuppan had stayed in Chengalpattu Railway Station and were doing the job of collection of wastages for their livelihood. The accused used to do the same job along with them. Prior to the occurrence, there had been enmity between the accused and the deceased. On 05.05.2009 around 02.00 p.m. when PW-1 and her husband Kuppan were collecting the wastages at Chengalpattu New Bus Stand, the accused and his wife came there and asked Kuppan to give the wastages. When Kuppan told him that he would not give the wastages, the accused immediately took the knife from the Tricycle and cut Kuppan in his left chest. Therefore, the said Kuppan fell down. When the accused and his wife started running, PW-1 caught-hold of the hand of the wife of the accused and during that time, the accused cut PW-1 in her left hand with the same knife. After seeing the same, PW-1 ran to Chengalpattu Town Police Station, wherein she was informed that the Police Station had been shifted to the place opposite to the Government Hospital.

(ii) In the meanwhile, when PW-3 Moorthi, Police Constable attached to Chengalpattu Town Police Station and the Head Constable-Paranthaman had been on Patrol duty, received a Message through Phone from the Police Station that a person had been lying with cut injuries at new Bus Stand. When they went to the place of occurrence, they saw the deceased with cut injuries in his chest. They sent a Message over phone for Ambulance, which came there and took the deceased to the Government Hospital, Chengalpattu. In the meantime, while PW-1 returned to the place of occurrence, she was informed that her husband was dead and that the dead body had been taken to the Government Hospital by an Ambulance. When she went to the Mortuary of the Hospital, she found her husband dead. She was admitted in the hospital for treatment.

(iii) When PW-7 Dr. Senthamarai Kannan had been on duty in the causality unit, the dead body was brought there. PW-7 found lacerated injury measuring 6 x 4 x 3 cm in the left chest of the dead body. In this regard, he issued the Accident Register Copy under Ex.P.5. He also examined PW-1 and found the following injuries:

(1) Lacerated injury measuring 12 x 5 x 4 cm on the left fore arm.

(2) Lacerated injury measuring 4 x 3 x 1 cm on the left palm.

Apart from that, PW-6 Dr. Chitra examined PW-1 and found the following