The court upheld the conviction for murder under Section 302 IPC, affirming that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt through credible evidence and confession.

JUDGMENT :

(R. POORNIMA, J.)

This Criminal Appeal is filed against the conviction and sentence passed against the appellant/sole accused in the judgment dated 29.10.2019 passed by the learned I Additional District and Sessions Judge (PCR), Thiruchirapalli in S.C.No.11 of 2019 by convicting and sentencing the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a sum of Rs.5,000/- in default, to undergo three months rigorous imprisonment.

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

(a) The complainant Mrs.Kalaivani, (P.W.1) is the Village Administrative Officer of the Kulumani Village. On 17.12.2017 at about 06.00 a.m, found a person standing nervously outside her office. Upon enquiry, he confessed to having committed a crime at about 2.30 a.m. His confession statement was recorded between 6.00 and 6.45 a.m.

(b) Thereafter, she along with the Village Assistant Jegadeesan had gone to the house of the accused and found his wife lying in a pool of blood with head injury. A grinding stone was found near the dead body.

(c) She took the accused to the Jeeyapuram Police Station and handed over the accused to the Inspector of Police with written complaint (Ex.P1) along with the statement of the accused (Ex.P2).

(d) The Inspector of Police (P.W.19), Jeeyapuram Police Station received the complaint (Ex.P1) and registered FIR (Ex.P.11) in Crime No.389 of 2017 for the offence under section 302 of IPC.

(e) Since the deceased died within two years from the date of marriage, P.W.19 sent an intimation to the Joint Commissioner of Police, Jeeyapuram and the Revenue Divisional Officer, Srirangam. He forwarded the FIR to the Judicial Magistrate and other officials through Mr.M.Karthikeyan (P.W.16), Police Constable 397. He assisted the investigation with the Deputy Superintendent of Police Assistant Mr.Srinivasan (P.W.20).

(f) After receipt of the copy of the FIR, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (P.W.20) went to the place of occurrence and advised the Head Constable Mr.Murgaiya (P.W.15) to take a photograph of the place of occurrence. He prepared observation mahazar (Ex.P3) and rough sketch (Ex.P12) in the presence of witnesses Mr.Bala Subramanian (P.W.9) and Mr.Venkatachalam. He recovered the blood- stained grinding stone (M.O.3) blood-stained mat (M.O.1) ordinary mat (M.O.2) and blood-stained bed sheet (M.O.4) under a recovery mahazar (Ex.P4).

(g) He recorded the confession statement of the accused in the presence of the Village Administrative Officer, Kalaivani (P.W.1) and Jegadeesan. He also examined other witnesses and recorded their statements.

(h) He went to the Government Hospital and examined the witnesses Madeswaran (P.W.5), Maheswari (P.W.6) and Manimegalai (P.W.7) and recorded their statements and then sent the material objects to the Court under Form-95.

(i) On 18.12.2017, he enquired Dr. Selvakumar (P.W.17) who had conducted postmortem on the dead body and obtained the postmortem certificate. The Doctor explained the injuries found in the dead body as follows:-

“Following antemortem injuries: -

1. Body deep lacerated wound on right side of the forehead of 2x1 cm with marginal reddish brown abrasion of 3.5 x 3 cm.

2. Bone deep lacerated wound behind the right ear of 1x1 cm with marginal reddish brown abrasion of 4x1 cm; on dissection, contusion underlying the lacerated wounds and on the left side of the head; skull: Linear fracture from right temporal to left temporal bone of 22cm; across the middle cranial fossa; separates the base of the skull as front and back; Membranes: Thin red colour subdural haemorrhage present; Brain: Intact, C/s.sticky.

3. Reddish brown abrasion present over the right lower jaw on the back side of 1x1 cm.

External genital organs: Intact, Heart: intact, C/s. All the chambers contain fluid blood; Lungs: Intact C/s.Patchy areas of blood present; On bloodless neck dissection: Larynx and trachea: fluid blood present; Hyoid bone and Thyroid cartilage: