EDIGA ANAMMA Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In a rural region of Andhra Pradesh freudian fury or explosion of six jealousy expressed itself in a gruesome murder of a young woman and her tender child by the accused, a young woman with an only child ten years old, all because, notwithstanding both being married, they had invested amorous affections in a middleaged libertine, P. W. 16, conveniently a widower. It is an admitted fact that the accused, although married, was keeping illicit relations with P. W. 16, a shepherd, but she discovered that lately her paramour was on flirting contacts with the deceased. This knowledge angered her so much that she extinguished the life of her rival on November 4, 1971, in the afternoon in a jungle, manipulating her murderous venture so cleverly that for a time people thought that she was the murdered and searched for her body. Closer enquiry revealed that the victim was Ansuya and other innocent one her baby less than two years old.

(2.) Shri Kathuria, appearing as amicus curiae, has presented a painstakingly meticulous argument on behalf of the prisoner, who has been condemned to death by the court below. It is but meet that we appreciate the industrious advocacy enthusiastically made by this young advocate.

(3.) By Sundown on November 4, 1971, a cadaver was found in a field outside the village of Konapur, Medak District, Andhra Pradesh. The deceased was a damsel who was first mistaken to be the accused because her face had been burnt out of recognition and on her body was found clothing which belonged to the accused-a device resorted to, as later evidence discloses, by the accused to throw enquiries off the scent. On November 8, 1971, the dead body of a baby Nirmala, daughter of Ansuya, the deceased, was recovered from the sandbed of a stream near the field. Investigations disclosed that Anamma, the accused, was the perpetrator of this fiendish crime. She was duly prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death for the offence of murder and life imprisonment for secreting evidence of the crime, under Section 201, Indian Penal Code. An appeal by the accused and a referred trial under the Code resulted in a Bench of the High Court affirming the guilt and upholding the sentence. A jail appeal has come before us, argued by Shri Kathuria as amicus curiae.