Untwalia, J. - (1.) The appellant in this appeal under Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act of, 1970 was acquitted by the Sessions Judge of the charges of having committed the murder of his mistress Veeramma and of having attempted to commit suicide. On appeal by the Public Prosecutor the High Court of Andhra Pradesh has convicted the appellant under Section 302, Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life He has also been convicted under Section 309 of the Code and awarded a concurrent sentence of one year's simple imprisonment.
(2.) The case is a simple one and in our opinion there was no scope for entertaining any doubt in regard to the prosecution, version of the occurrence. The judgment of acquittal gassed by the trial Judge was not only wrong but perverse. The High Court has rightly convicted the appellant.
(3.) The deceased was aged about 22 years at the time of the occurrence which took place on the 29th May, 1969, at about 7 O'clock in the morning. The appellant was then 23 years of age. Though the deceased was a married woman, she had left her husband and was living as the mistress of the appellant in a hut provided to her by him. The appellant seems to be a man of sexually loose morals. Though he got married, still he continued his illicit connections with the deceased girl. He later developed an intimacy with a Nala woman which was resented by the deceased. About a week before the occurrence the deceased left the residence of the appellant and went back to her parents. In the evening of the day prior to the occurrence the appellant went to the house of P. W. l Palivala Maremma - mother of the deceased and told her (deceased) that she should not remain in the village when she had left residing, with him and threatened her that if she continued to remain in the village, he would stab her. On the following morning at about 7 A. M. the deceased and her mother went to fetch fresh water from a tank near a temple close-by. P.W. 2 Mamidala Annapurna who also lived close-by was at the tank for cleaning her vessels. The appellant pounced upon the deceased after jumping over the compound wall of the temple, pulled a dagger from the sheath tied to his waist and gave a blow on the chest of the deceased. Veeramma fell down and died instantaneously. Thereafter the appellant stabbed himself twice in the chest with the same dagger and rushed towards the road with the dagger in his hand. After going for some distance, he fell down near the house of one Gopalarao.;