The Madras High Court Bench here has set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed in a murder case after observing that the trial court ought not have punished the accused on the charge of murdering his wife just because a person, suspected to be her paramour, had conceded the existence of an illegal relationship between them.
Allowing a criminal appeal filed by the convict, a Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and V.S. Ravi pointed out that there was neither an eyewitness to the murder nor the prosecution had proved the case through circumstantial evidence.
In such circumstances, the trial court should not have convicted the appellant solely on the basis of evidence adduced by the alleged paramour.
“The court cannot automatically come to a conclusion that the accused has caused death simply on the basis of the illicit relationship between him and the deceased… Therefore, viewing from any angle, the conviction and sentence passed by the trial court are factually and legally unsustainable and the same are liable to be set aside,” the judges said.
The appeal had been filed against a judgement passed by an Additional District and Sessions Court here on August 31, 2009 in a case registered by Sinthupatti police near here on September 14, 2008. The appellant, Shajakhan, was accused of suspecting his wife’s fidelity and murdering her by throwing on her head a heavy stone used to grind batter.
