BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT DATED : 29.04.2025 CORAM:

THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE B.PUGALENDHI Crl.A(MD)No.1 of 2018

1.N.Arumugam S/o Neelamegam

2.N.Muthuramalingam, S/o Neelamegam. ... Appellants Vs State of Tamil Nadu Represented by The Inspector of Police, Sikkal Police Station, Ramanathapuram District.

Crime No.16 of 2013. ... Respondent PRAYER: Appeal filed under Section 374 of Criminal Procedure Code, to call for the records pertaining to the judgment passed by the learned Principal District and Sessions Judge cum Fast Track Mahila Court, Ramanathapuram in S.C.No.71 of 2014, dated 06.12.2017.

For Appellants : Mr.Shanmuga Sundaram for Mr.W.Pamelin For Respondent : Mr.T.Senthil Kumar Additional Public Prosecutor J U D G M E N T The appellants are the accused 1 & 2 in SC No.71 of 2014 on the file of the Principal District and Sessions Court (FTC Mahila Court), Ramanathapuram. They were tried for the offence under Section 306 IPC and the trial Court, by its judgment, dated 06.12.2017 found both the appellants guilty for the offence under Section 306 IPC and convicted, sentenced them to undergo 10 years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs.25,000/-, each, in default, they have to undergo one year rigorous imprisonment. Challenging the judgment of conviction, the appellants have filed this Criminal Appeal in the year

2018.

2.The brief facts of the case of the prosecution in a nutshell is as under:-

The deceased Chamundeeswari had committed suicide in her matrimonial home, by pouring kerosene on 04.04.2013 at about 6.30 a.m., The second appellant is the husband of the deceased and the first appellant is her mother-in-law. PW 1/the defacto complainant is the mother of the deceased. The marriage between the deceased and the second appellant was solemnized on 29.06.2012, nine months prior to the occurrence. At the time of marriage, the deceased was studying Nursing course in Chennai and the second appellant/the husband of the deceased was working at Dubai. Both the families are relatives. The mother of the deceased was residing in the neighbouring village, namely, Deivadanampatti, which is 1 km away from the appellants’ Village, namely, Senkarpadai. After the marriage, the deceased and A2/second appellant lived together for a period of 20 days. Thereafter, the second appellant left to Dubai. A1 /the mother-in-law of the deceased was abusing the deceased that she is not responsible, she is wasting groceries and not doing any household work. Therefore, both of them were in a constrained relationship, due to which, the deceased left her matrimonial home and started living along with her mother. On knowing that, A2 returned from Dubai on 31.03.2013 and went to the defacto complainant’s house, called his wife to the matrimonial home, however, she refused to go with A2 and on the advice of the PW4 Udayar, her close relative, she returned to the matrimonial home. The first appellant left to Madurai on 03.04.2013 to attend funeral of her relative. In the early morning hours of 04.04.2013, the deceased requested the second appellant to get some milk and therefore, the second appellant has also left the house and in fact, at the time of occurrence, both A1 and A2 were not available in the house. While so, the deceased set on ablaze by pouring kerosene at about 6.30.a.m., On seeing the smoke, PW 9/ the neighbour went to the house, extinguished the fire and attempted to rescue the deceased. However, the deceased sustained 100 % burn injuries. When the second appellant, who came to the house after buying milk and on seeing the incident, he had fainted. PW 1 was informed by the Panchayat President of Senkarpadai Village and immediately, she went to the place of occurrence along with PWs 3 & 8. The service of 108 Ambulance was also called, however, the Ambulance Personnel declared that the deceased was dead. Therefore, PW 1 has lodged a complaint before the respondent police on 04.04.2013 at 11.30 a.m and the same was registered in Cr