STATE OF KERALA Vs. AMMINI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A woman by name Merely and her two little children were found lying dead in their bed-room, when her husband (Tomy P.W. 2) reached home at about 9.30 p. m. on 23-6-1980. The death was due to poisoning with Cyanide. The police 'charge sheeted Ammini (widow of Tomy's brother) and three other accused for the murder of Merely and children. The Sessions Court, after a protracted trial, acquitted the accused. This appeal has been preferred by the State against the said acquittal. A Division Bench of this Court, referred the case to the Full Bench "ia view of the importance of the questions of law raised in this appeal........."

(2.) A synoptical resume of the prosecution version is this: Ammini, the first accused, was nurturing vengeance against Tomy and she longed for the extermination of the entire family of Tomy; a criminal conspiracy was hatched for the said purpose as between Ammini and the other three accused and a scheme was evolved by them to murder Tomy and his wife and their children (children are Sona daughter aged 8 and Rana son aged 5). In pursuance of the scheme Ammini went to Tomy's house at about 7.30 p.m. on 23-6-1980, as though it was a casual visit; she was followed by two of the other accused (third and fourth accused); those two accused caught hold of Merely and forced her to open her mouth and one of them emptied a packet containing cyanide into her mouth; in the meanwhile Ammini took Sona and Rana to the next room and with the help of one of the other two accused cyanide was forcibly stuffed into the mouth of the children also. The victims did not survive long as they died almost instantaneously. Ammini left the house, as pre-planned and the other two remained there since they were to wait till the arrival of the second accused, so that the three could forcibly administer cyanide poison to Tomy also on his returning home. But the scheme as against Tomy fizzled put on account of an unforeseen snag. The third accused's fingers were injured as Merely bit him during the course of the ravages induction of poison into her mouth and that accused became panicky at the thought that the lethal poison might over power him also. Hence, the third and fourth accused briskly left the house. When the second accused reached Tomy's house, he did not find his expected companions and so he did not venture to remain there. Thus Tomy accidentally escaped from the tentacles of the murderers.

(3.) As the prosecution story consists of a large number of events and as the evidence for prosecution is voluminous, it is necessary to state some further details of the prosecution case: Tomy and his brothers were in affluent circumstances doing business at Alwaye. Ammini's husband, Francis, and Tomy started a partnership business in piece-goods by name "Rani Silk House" and later they started another one by name "Maharani Textiles". In 1969 a third partnership was formed under the name "Rani Umbrella Mart" (which was later renamed as Rani Cut Piece Centre) in which Francis, Merely and Josephine (PW 26 eldest sister of PW 2) were partners. The affluence in which Ammini and her family lived had a set back in 1975 when her husband Francis passed away. Ammini was then inducted as a partner into the first two firms in place of her husband. But she was not allowed to join the third firm on the ground that her husband had, during his life time, overdrawn his investment from that business. This was the genesis of Ammini's grouse against Tomy. Ammini was not satisfied with the amounts given to her by Tomy and she used to express her resentment over the inadequacy of amounts given to her.