The prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, leading to the appellant's acquittal.

JUDGMENT :

G.K. ILANTHIRAIYAN, J.

1. This appeal is directed as against the Judgment passed in S.C.No.87 of 2019, dated 07.02.2023, on the file of the Mahila Court, Pudukkottai, thereby convicting the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of I.P.C.

2. The case of the prosecution is that the deceased fell in love with the accused. When this came to the knowledge of the deceased's father, he arranged marriage for her with some other person. Therefore, the deceased compelled the accused, both over the phone and in person, to marry her. As a result, the accused became angry and with an intention to do away with the life of the deceased, he went to meet her after talking to her over the phone on 31.01.2019 at about 09.00 p.m. The accused asked the deceased to come out of her house to R.S. Pathy field, situated at the rear side of her house, where he was standing. While they were talking, the deceased again compelled him to marry her, which led to a wordy quarrel. During the quarrel, the deceased picked up a wooden log lying there and assaulted the accused on his head and body. In turn, the accused, who was already enraged, became furious and took out a knife which was hidden in his hip and stabbed the deceased in her left ear and chin. Further, he snatched the wooden log from the deceased and assaulted her with it. As a result, the deceased fell down in a pool of blood, sustaining grievous injuries and subsequently succumbed to those injuries.

3. Based on the complaint lodged by the father of the deceased, the respondent registered an F.I.R in Crime No.26 of 2019 for the offence punishable underSection 302 of I.P.C. After completion of the investigation, a final report was filed and the same was taken cognizance by the Trial Court.

4. In order to bring the charges to home, the prosecution examined P.W.1 to P.W.10 and marked Exs.P1 to P20. The prosecution also produced Material Objects M.O.1 to M.O.7. On the side of the accused, Ex.D.1 was marked and no witnesses were examined before the Trial Court.

5. On perusal of the oral and documentary evidence, the trial Court found the accused guilty for the offence punishable underSection 302 of I.P.C and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs.2,00,000/- in default, to undergo one year Rigorous Imprisonment. Aggrieved by the same, the appellant has filed the present Criminal Appeal.

6. The learned counsel appearing for the appellant submitted that the appellant was not arrested by the respondent in the manner as alleged by the prosecution. Further, the appellant did not give any confession statement and no recovery was effected pursuant thereto. Therefore, the prosecution failed to prove the arrest and recovery of the weapon. The prosecution itself projected the case as though the deceased went to the scene of crime on the call made by the appellant. There was a wordy quarrel between them since the appellant refused to marry her, due to which the deceased attacked the appellant with a wooden log. Therefore, the appellant allegedly took the knife from his hip and assaulted her and also beat her with wooden log which was used by the deceased. This version of the prosecution is a cooked-up story without any supporting evidence. No witness has spoken about the case of the prosecution as projected and all the witnesses stated that they came to the scene of crime and saw both the appellant and the deceased injured. According to them, both sustained injuries and immediately the appellant was taken to the police station. Hence, the entire case of the prosecution is cooked up