In Brief
Accused No. 1 (wife) and Accused No. 2 (her paramour) were convicted for murder under Section 302 IPC. They appealed, contending the case rested solely on a weak extrajudicial confession made 40 days later. The Supreme Court partly allowed the appeal. While accepting the confession's credibility, the Court found the case fell under Section 304 Part I IPC (culpable homicide) rather than murder, because the death resulted from sudden and grave provocation when the deceased called the accused and her daughter 'prostitutes'—words that in Indian society deprive a woman of self-control. The accused were convicted under Section 304 Part I for 10 years (instead of life imprisonment) and upheld their conviction under Section 201 IPC for hiding the body.
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