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e) PW3 Lakshmi left her house at 5.30 a.m. and went to the market and purchased some vegetables and came back at 6.30 a.m. On hearing that the deceased Rajammal was crying out of pain, she went and saw her and at that time, the deceased Rajammal told her that her husband/ accused gave halwa in the night and after eating the same, she developed chest pain and dysentery. PW3 and PW4 took the deceased to hospital at about 7.30 am. PW13, the Doctor attached to Shanmugapriya Clinic examined the deceased, to whom the deceased told that she ate halwa given by her husband. Since her condition was so serious and she vomited some yellow colour substance, the Doctor suspected it as oleander poison and so he referred her to the Government Hospital. Ex.P7 is the certificate issued by him. Thereafter, PW3 Lakshmi, PW1 Nataraj and PW2 Rajeswari took the victim to the Government Hospital at Coimbatore. PW14 Dr.Sundaramurthy attached to the Government Hospital at about 8.30 am admitted her, to whom also the deceased Rajammal stated that she took Halwa, which was given by her husband. Then after treatment, she was admitted in the special ward. He also gave intimation Ex.P9 to Police, since it is a poison case. He issued Ex.P8 accident register extract. PW 15 Dr.Chellappan also examined the victim. The victim told PW15 Doctor about what had happened at about 2.00 am in their house. Despite the treatment given by the Doctors PW14 and PW15, the victim died at 9.30 am. Ex.P11 is the case sheet.

8) As laid down by the Apex Court in ANANT CHINTAMAN LAGU VS. STATE OF BOMBAY (AIR 1960 SC 500) in the poisoning cases, the prosecution must establish the three propositions.

1. Death took place by poisoning;

2. that the accused had the poison in his possession and

3. that the accused had an opportunity to administer the poison to the deceased.

Though these three propositions must be kept in mind always, while appreciating the various pieces of evidence available in this case, sufficiency of evidence direct or circumstantial to establish murder by poison will depend upon the facts of each case. If the evidence in a particular case does not justify the inference that death is the result of poisoning because of the failure of the prosecution to prove the fact satisfactorily, either directly or by circumstantial evidence, then the benefit of the doubt will have to be given to the accused person. But, the circumstantial evidence, in the absence of direct proof of the three elements, must be so decisive that the Court can unhesitatingly hold that the death was a result of administration of poison (though not detected) and that the poison must have been administered by the accused person, then the conviction can be rested on it.

17) Secondly, the counsel for the appellant would strenuously contend that the reason for the death has not been established. In support of his contention, the counsel for the appellant relied only on the viscera report Ex.P14, which was marked through PW 17. According to PW 17, through Ex.P14, the four articles such as stomach, lungs, liver, kidney which were sent for analysis, did not contain oleander poison.

18) At this juncture, it would be relevant to refer to the observation of the Supreme Court in poisoning cases made in the decision in ANANT CHINTAMAN LAGU VS. THE STATE OF BOMBAY ( AIR 1960 SC 500), which is as follows:

20) In the present case, we have got Ex.P15 opinion which is marked through PW16 Doctor in which it is stated that the deceased would appear to have died of poison. It is true that Dr. Shanmugavelusamy would state in Ex.P15 that in the light of Ex.P13 post-mortem certificate, oleander poison was not detected.

21) Regarding this aspect, the evidence of PW13, 14 and 15, the Doctors who gave the treatment to the deceased is quite relevant. According to PW 13, Dr. Subramaniam, the deceased Rajammal was admitted and when she was enquired, she informed the Doctor that her husband gave the halwa the earlier night and the same was eaten by her and after taking it, she got giddiness and vomited thereafter. He would also state that she vomited in the hospital also and since the substance which was vomited was in yellow colour, PW13 suspected that it was a poison case and therefore, he referred the patient to the General Hospital ,Coimbatore. Ex.P7 is the certificate issued by him. In the said certificate, he referred about the oral dying declaration given by the deceased against the accused and also mentioned about vomited yellow substance, which was suspected to contain oleander poison.