Elavarasan vs State Rep.By Inspector Of Police

2. Briefly stated the prosecution case is that the appellant was residing in a house situate at Yadwal Street, 2 Poovam Koticherri, Distt. Karaikal, Tamil Nadu. Apart from his wife Smt. Dhanalakshmi, PW2 and his daughter Abirami, aged about 1= years, his mother Smt. Valli, PW3 also lived with him. On the fateful night intervening 11-12 of December, 2000 at about 1 p.m. the appellant is alleged to have started a quarrel with his wife accusing her of having brought misfortune to him ever since she got married to him. The immediate provocation for making that accusation was his inability to sell the property owned by his mother, as the Revenue entries relating the same stood in the name of Kannan, the paternal uncle of the appellant, who it appears was not agreeable to the sale of the property. The quarrel between the husband and the wife took an ugly turn when the appellant made a murderous assault on his wife, Dhanalakshmi causing several injuries to her including those on her head, left hand, right cheek and other parts of the body. Intervention of PW3, Vali who is none other than the mother of the appellant also did not stop the appellant from assaulting his wife. In the process injuries were caused even to the mother. Due to the ruckus caused by the quarrel and the assault on the two women, Abirami who was sleeping in the adjacent room woke up and started crying. The appellant at that stage is alleged to have gone 3 inside the room and hit the deceased resulting in her death.

3. The prosecution case further is that the appellant did not allow the injured to go out of the house and bolted the doors from inside. In the morning at about 7 a.m. Shri R. Parvathi, PW5 is said to have gone to the house of R. Natarajan, PW1 - a resident of the same street in the village and told him about the quarrel at the house of the appellant the previous night. Both of them then came to the spot and found a pool of blood near the outer door of the house of the appellant. Since the door was bolted from inside, PW1 called the appellant by his name, who responded to the call and said that he had cut his mother and wife and wanted to commit suicide for which he demanded some poison from them. A large number of villagers in the meantime gathered on the spot but the appellant refused to open the door. The Police was informed about the incident on telephone and soon arrived at the spot to knock at the doors of the appellant's house asking him to open the same.

The appellant refused to do so and threatened that he would murder anyone who ventured to enter the house. Since the appellant remained adamant in this resolve, the Police with the help of PWs 1, 8 and others forced the door open and 4 found the appellant inside the house armed with an Aruval, and his mother and wife lying inside the house with serious cut injuries and blood all over the place. In the adjacent room they found Abirami in an injured condition. Not knowing whether she was dead or alive, she was picked up and rushed to the hospital alongwith the other two injured, where the doctor pronounced the child brought dead. On completion of the investigation, the police filed a charge-

4. Before the Trial Court the prosecution examined as many as 21 witnesses in support of its case while the accused-appellant who set up unsoundness of mind in defence did not lead any evidence except making a request for medical examination which request was allowed and Dr. R. Chandrasekaran and Dr. P. Srinivasan who examined the appellant summoned as court witnesses to depose about their observations and conclusions as regards the mental health of the appellant.

5. The Trial court eventually rejected the plea of insanity and found the appellant guilty of the charges framed against him and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life for the murder of his child baby Abirami and to undergo 1 year rigorous imprisonment for the offence punishable under Section 342 IPC and 10 years rigorous imprisonment together with a fine of Rs.1,000/-

6. Aggrieved by the judgment and order of the Trial Court the appellant filed an appeal before the High Court of Madras, who dismissed the same and affirmed the findings recorded by the Trial Court as already noticed by us. The High Court held that the appellant had been caught red handed with the weapon of offence inside the house in the presence of PWs 1, 7, 8 and others. Besides, there was no reason why his wife PW2, who was an injured eye-witness to the entire incident, should have falsely implicated the appellant. The High Court also took the view that since PW3, the mother of the appellant who had also been injured in the incident had turned hostile and stated that she had sustained the injuries accidently because of a fall, the appellant's conviction for the attempted murder of his 6 mother punishable under Section 307 was liable to be set aside. The fact that PW3 had turned hostile did not, opined the High Court, make any dent in the prosecution case in so far as the same related to the murder of the innocent child and an attempt made by the appellant on the life of his wife Dhanalakshmi. The plea of insanity was rejected by the High Court on the ground that there was no material to show that the appellant was insane at the time of the commission of the offences. The present appeal assails the correctness of the above judgment and order as already noticed by us.

19. What falls for consideration in the light of the above is whether the present is one such case where the plea of insanity - is proved or even probablised by the evidence led by the prosecution and the court witnesses examined at the Trial. Depositions of two prosecution witnesses viz.

(Emphasis supplied)

diagnostic evaluation.

PSYCHO-DIAGOSTIC EVALUATION:

72). Mixed psychotic picture with predominantly affective disturbances was seen. He requires further support and guidance in occupational area.

production of anyone who noticed any irrational or eccentric behaviour on the part of the appellant in that view is noteworthy. Suffice it to say that the plea of insanity taken by the appellant was neither substantiated nor probablised.

28. That brings us to the nature of offence committed by the appellant and the quantum of sentence that would meet the ends of justice. The courts below have found the appellant guilty of murder of baby Abirami and awarded a life sentence to the appellant apart from 10 years rigorous imprisonment for the offence of attempt to murder Dhanalakshmi and imprisonment of one year under Section 342 of the I.P.C. In the circumstances of the case we see no reason to alter the conviction or sentence under Section 342 of the I.P.C. We also see no reason to interfere with the conviction of the appellant under Section 307 of the I.P.C. except that instead of 10 years rigorous imprisonment of 7 years, should in our view suffice. The conviction of the appellant under Section 302 of the I.P.C.

30. Thirdly, because the appellant had because of the sudden fight with his wife assaulted her in the heat of passion and injured his mother who intervened to save her.

The noise and wails of the injured woke up the deceased sleeping in the adjacent room who started crying thereby attracting the appellant's attention towards her.