JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J.—

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court directing acquittal of the respondent who faced trial for having allegedly committed the murder of his wife Veeranki Bhulaxmi (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’). It was the prosecution case that after committing the murder of his wife, the accused had tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat with knife. He was charged for commission of offences punishable under Sections 302 and 309 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’). He was tried for both the offences, but he was sentenced only in respect of offence punishable under Section 302 IPC.

2. Prosecution version, in a nutshell, is as follows:

The accused, the deceased and the prosecution witnesses were the residents of Venkuru village of Vijayawada, Krishna district. The deceased was the wife of the accused. PW-1 was the mother, PWs 2 and 3 were daughters and PW-4 was brother of the deceased. The deceased and PW-2 were attending cooli work and were maintaining the family. They shifted their residence to Venkuru village for their livelihood and were staying in the house of PW-1.