The testimony of a sole eye-witness can suffice for conviction if credible and corroborated by medical evidence, even if the extra-judicial confession is weak.

JUDGMENT

M.S.RAMESH, J.

The judgment of the Trial Court dated 14.08.2019 passed in S.C.No.55 of 2019 by the I Additional District and Sessions Judge, Coimbatore, holding the sole accused/appellant guilty of having committed the offence under Section 302 of IPC and sentencing him to life imprisonment together with fine of Rs.1,000/- in default of which, to undergo 3 months simple imprisonment, is under challenge in the present Criminal Appeal.

2. The brief case of the prosecution is that the deceased had married one Kavitha, who is the daughter of the accused. Owing to a matrimonial dispute, on 20.12.2017, the wife of the deceased had left her matrimonial house and went to the house of her father/accused. According to the prosecution, when the deceased had gone to the accused's house to bring back his wife, he was scolded and assaulted by the accused, his wife and sister-in-law. Thereafter, the parents of the deceased had consoled and advised him to wait for 2 days to bring back his wife. In this background, on 24.12.2017 at 05.45 A.M., when the father of the deceased namely Aiyavoo, together with the deceased, Karuppasamy and Aiyyasamy were on the way to attend nature's call, the accused who was hiding, had suddenly stabbed the deceased with a knife on the left side of his neck and fled the scene. The father of the deceased, who was walking a few feet behind the deceased, rushed and took the deceased to the hospital. However, the doctors declared that he was brought dead. Thereafter, the father of the deceased along with Karuppasamy, went to Perur Police Station and gave a police complaint. On completion of the investigation, the accused was charged of having committed the offence under Section 302 IPC .

3. Before the Trial Court, the prosecution had examined 11 witnesses namely P.W.1 to P.W.11 and marked 22 documents namely Exs.P1 to P22, apart from 9 material objects namely M.O.1 to M.O.9. On the side of the defence, the daughter of the accused/wife of the deceased was examined as D.W.1. No documentary evidences were marked on the side of the defence.

4.1 The prosecution had projected the father of the deceased namely Aiyavoo (P.W.1), cousin of the deceased namely Karrupasamy (P.W.2), as independent witnesses who were walking along with the deceased on the fateful day and Aiyyasamy (P.W.3) as eye witness to the occurrence that took place on 24.12.2017 at 06.00 A.M. However, during the course of trial, P.W.2 and P.W.3 were treated as hostile witnesses by the prosecution, leaving P.W.1 alone, as the sole eye-witness, through whom the police complaint (Ex.P1) was marked.

4.2 Palaniammal (P.W.4), who is the mother of the deceased, is a hearsay witness.

4.3 Aiyyasamy (P.W.5) is a witness to the observation mahazar (Ex.P2) and seizure mahazar (Ex.P3), through whom blood stained earth (M.O.2) and sample earth (M.O.3), were marked.

4.4 Ravichandar (P.W.6), is the Village Administrative Officer before whom the accused had appeared and given a voluntary confession. After recording the confession, he had prepared a special report (Ex.P4) and produced the accused before Perur Police Station. The Investigation Officer had recorded the arrest of the accused under Form-91 (Ex.P5) and had seized the blood stained shirt (M.O.4) and dhoti (M.O.5) of the accused, through a seizure mahazar (Ex.P6).

4.5 Tanuja Banu (P.W.7) is the Forensic Science Expert, who had received the requisition letter (Ex.P7) from the Inspector of Police, Perur Police Station for chemical analysis. She had then issued forensic, biological and serological reports (Exs.P8, P9 and P10 respectively), recording that out of 9 items received, blood stains in 4 items were human blood of O group.

4.6 Jayasingh (P.W.8) is the doctor who conducted the post-mortem. The requisition letter for post-mortem (Ex.P11), post-mortem certificate (Ex.P12), viscera report (Ex.P13) and final opinion (Ex.P14) that the cause of death of the deceased was due to multiple stab injuries, were marked through h