Mundlapadi Krishnaiah vs State of A.P.

K.T. Thomas and R.P. Sethi, JJ.—This is a case where Shivamma, wife of the Appellant is alleged to have been killed by the Appellant by ligature strangulation on the night of 18.12.1995. The trial court and the High Court found him guilty of the offence and convicted him u/s 302 of the I.P.C. and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. This appeal is by special leave.

Shivamma was married to another person, but that marriage did not last long. The Appellant had also married another person first but his wife of that first marriage died. Thereafter the Appellant took Shivamma as his wife. They had no children.

Prosecution case is that the Appellant started doubting the fidelity of Shivamma. Some mediation efforts were made to narrow-down the differences between them. On the intervention of persons like P.W. 4, Shivamma again agreed to live with the Appellant. This is the background.

The case entirely depends upon circumstantial evidence. Among the circumstances the most formidable one, according to the prosecution, is the evidence of P.W. 2 who said that the Appellant had told him on the very same night itself that he killed his wife Shivamma by strangulating her with a saree. If the aforesaid extra-judicial confession can be accepted as true and genuine, that by itself can form the basis for conviction. Nonetheless, this Court has held in earlier decisions that as a matter of caution, the Court must seek corroboration for such extra-judicial confession, even if the same is found genuine and true.

P.W. 2 said that on being informed by the Appellant about what he did to the deceased wife, he wanted the Appellant to remain in the room and he went to collect his son with whom P.W. 2 went to the house of occurrence and saw the dead body of Shivamma. Thereafter, P.W. 2 went back to his house, but by that time the Appellant had escaped from there. P.W. 2 then went to his boss-P.W. 1, who was a rice mill owner. On the night at 1.00 a.m., he woke P.W. 1 up from sleep and conveyed the information to him.

The first information report was lodged by P.W. 1 at 11.00 a.m. on the following day. In that F.I.R., P.W. 1 had given full details of what P.W. 2 had reported to him. P.W. 1 himself testified to the whole details in the Court. The trial court and the High Court found the testimony of P.W. 1 quite reliable. The evidence of P.W. 1 as well as the information contained in the F.I.R. afford corroborative materials for the extra-judicial confession spoken to by P.W. 2.

There is yet another circumstance which gives added assurance to the Court regarding the truth of the version spoken to by P.W. 2. It was his version that the accused told him about the strangulation of Shivamma with a saree. The medical evidence proves to the hilt that Shivamma was killed by ligature strangulation with a saree. Hence that circumstance is also available for corroborating the evidence of P.W. 2.

Learned Counsel for the Appellant contended that there was delay at two stages. The first was when P.W. 2 communicated the same to P.W. 1 and the second was when P.W. 1 lodged information with the police. But we have not been able to appreciate whether there was any delay at all at either of those stages. P.W. 2 heard the incident from the accused at 11.30 p.m. and informed his boss-P.W. 1 on the same night within an interval of one and a half hours. Apart from the fact that there was no delay, it shows a case of prompt reporting to his boss. That apart, P.W. 1 should be admired for taking the trouble to go to the police station situated 14 kms. away for lodging the information with the police. He did that at 11.00 a.m. Here, also there is no cause to blame him that he delayed in giving such information to the police.

Learned Counsel then contended that prosecution could have examined the son of P.W. 2 who also would have heard the extra-judicial confession made by the accused. Well, if son was also examined it would have been only an addition to P.W. 2''s version. Such multiplication of evidence on the same point by father and son may be redundant in certain circumstances. This is one like that. Hence, non-examination of the son of P.W. 2 is of no consequence in this case.

In the result, we dismiss this appeal.