Ravikumar Alias Kutti Ravi vs State Of Tamil Nadu

The accused-appellant was convicted by the Sessions Court under Section 302 of IPC to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/- and in default to undergo R.I. for a period of three months. He was further found guilty of charge under Section 449 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for ten years and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/-, in default to undergo R.I. for a period of three months. The sentence imposed on the appellant was confirmed by the High Court. Aggrieved by the said order of conviction, the present appeal is preferred by the accused-appellant.

The relevant facts from the evidence of the prosecution are that Pushpa (deceased), her brother Selvaraj (PW-3) and Radha (PW-2 wife of PW-3), were residing at Bagalur in a rented house. On 15th January, 1998 at about 5.00 P.M., when PW-2 was returning from Sandai (market), she heard hue and cry from her house and when she rushed towards the house, she saw the accused Ravikumar alias Kutti Ravi running away from her residence. She saw that deceased came out of their house in flames. She raised alarm and several neighbours came to the spot and put off the fire with the help of a blanket. The deceased narrated the incident to PW-2 that the accused along with his girl friend Mala alias Mallesi committed house trespass with the intention to outrage the modesty of the deceased and since she resisted, the accused-appellant at the instigation of Mala poured kerosene over her and set her on fire. The deceased thereafter was taken to the government hospital at Hosur. PW-9 Dr. Jayraman Raju, the resident doctor admitted her at 5.45 P.M. PW-9 gave intimation to the police and immediately thereafter the Head Constable Govindraj (since deceased) came to the hospital and recorded the statement of the deceased (Exh.P-9) The doctor gave a certificate that the deceased was conscious at that time and that he had translated her version given in Telugu to Tamil so as to enable the constable to record the statement. The statement was received at the police station and a case was registered under Section 376 read with Sections 511 and 307, IPC. PW-9, doctor intimated to the Judicial Magistrate PW-8 (Thiru. Muthuraj) of the incident who in turn came to the hospital and recorded the dying declaration (Exh. P-4) of the deceased at 6.35 P.M. on the date of occurrence. PW-9 (doctor) translated the dying declaration given by the deceased in Telugu to Tamil and also certified that at the time of giving the dying declaration she was conscious and in a fit state of mind to give the dying declaration. Later on Pushpa succumbed to her injuries and died on 21.1.98 at 4.30 P.M. in the government hospital, Hosur. PW-10 (R. Naresh) conducted the autopsy on the body and issued the postmortem certificate. The following injuries were found on the deceased :-

The case of the prosecution is primarily based upon the dying declaration of the deceased which found corroboration by the statement of PW-2.

As regards the manner in which the Magistrate recorded the statement of the deceased with the help of the doctor PW-9, there is no reason or material to show that the dying declaration was the result of either a product of imagination, tutoring or prompting. On the contrary, the same appears to have been made by the deceased voluntarily, it is trustworthy and has credibility. For the aforesaid reasons, we do not find any good or sufficient reason to take a different view of the matter than what has been held by the Sessions Judge and the High Court. The appeal is, accordingly, dismissed.