THIMMA AND THIMMA RAJU Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant was convicted by the Sessions Judge, Shimoga, under S. 302, I. P. C. for the murder of one Govindappa, a village postman and was awarded capital sentence. He was also held guilty of an offence under S. 201, I.P.C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 7 years. The High Court of Mysore confirmed the conviction and sentence under S. 302, I. P. C. It also upheld his conviction under S. 201, I. P. C. but set aside the sentence on this court observing that when a person is convicted both under S. 302 and S. 201, I. P. C, it is undesirable to pass separate sentences for both offences. In this appeal with special leave the appellant challenges his conviction and sentence under S. 302, I.P.C.

(2.) The appellant was tried, along with Laxmamma (accused no. 2) wife of the deceased Govindappa and her mother Gangamma (accused no. 3) wife of late Mylappa. The two women were charged with abetment of murder and were acquitted by the trial court. We are not concerned with them m this appeal. There is no eye witness in the case and the courts below have accepted the prosecution story on circumstantial evidence. The question before us is whether the circumstantial evidence accepted by the courts below establishes the murder of the deceased by the appellant beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecution story may now be stated.

(3.) The deceased, Govindappa, resident of Kommanal village in Shimoga Taluk worked as Extra-Departmental Delivery Agent in the postal department. He was attached to the post office at Kommanal and was in common parlance called a postman. G. Sangaiah (P. W. 1) resident of village Abbalagere worked as an Assistant School Teacher in Kommanal. The distance between the two villages is 13/4 miles. P. W. 1 also worked as Branch Postmaster in Kommanal and was called Extra Departmental Postmaster. According to him the duties of the deceased were to bring the postal bags from the M. M. S. Bus on the main road in the morning at about 8.30 a. m. and after the bags were opened by P. W. 1 to deliver the postal articles to their respective addresses. At about 4.30 p. m. he would return to the post office to take the postal bags to the Mall Service Bus. Six villages were attached to this post office. The deceased used to deliver postal articles in two groups of three villages each on alternate days. On July 21, 1967 at about 10 A. M. the deceased received the postal articles from P. W. 1 for delivering them to the addresses in villages Kittadal, Kunchenhalli and Bikkonahalli. The articles to be delivered included two registered letters addressed to Krishna Naika and Halanaika of Kittadal. At about 3.30 p.m. the deceased returned and told P. W. 1 that the addressees, having gone to their fields, were not in the village, and that he would again try to deliver the registered articles to them. The deceased took the postal bags from the post office for delivery to the Mail bus. He did not return to duty thereafter. As the deceased had been in the service of the post office for nearly 3 1/2 years, P. W. 1 did not suspect his bona fides. On July 22, 1967 P. W. 1 went to the house of the deceased but did not find him there. Thinking that the deceased might have been unavoidably held up somewhere P. W. 1 in addition to his own duties performed those of the deceased as well on that day. On July 23, P. W. 1 went to village Kittadal to inquire about the delivery of the registered articles to the addressees. There he learnt from Krishna Naika (P. W. 15) that on July 21, 1967 the deceased had delivered to him the registered article at about 6 p.m. P. W. 15 on being questioned by the court gave the time of delivery to be about 4 p. m. But this difference as to time, in the opinion of the trial court, was due to the fact that the witness had no precise idea of time. After having waited for another day on July 24, 1967 P. W. 1 reported to the Postal Inspector, Shimoga Circle about the disappearance of the deceased, Exhibit P-1 is this report. P. W. 1 informed. the Postal Inspector of the steps taken by him in his search for the deceased. Those steps included the inquiries made by him from the addressees of the registered letters which had been delivered by the deceased. P. W. 1 had looked at those registered letters and left instructions for their production when required. It was further reported that the receipts pertaining to the delivery of RL. No. 456/Udipi, and RL No, 825/Udipi, and the visit book had not been returned by the deceased, to the post office. A request was made by P. W, 1 for the appointment of someone in place of the deceased so that the registered articles received on the 24th and 25th July, 1967 be delivered to their respective addressees. The Postal Inspector was asked to visit Kommanal for making the necessary arrangements. This report reached the Inspector (S, W, Pawar, P. W, 2) on July 26, 1967 and he visited Kommanal on July 27, 1967. There he collected four Panchayatdars and examined Laxmamma, the wife of the deceased. The same day he submitted his report, Ex. P-3, to the Sub-Inspector of Police, Kasba Police Station, Shimoga, attaching with it a copy of the report of P. W. 1, and also a copy of the statement of Laxmamma. In this report all the relevant facts were stated. The important thing to be noted about this report is that according to it the deceased had two keys of letter boxes fixed at Kunchenhalli and Somanakoppa. The duplicate of these locks were, however, available with P. W. 1. This report was sent because, according to P. W. 2, neither the wife of the deceased nor anyone else from the village had reported to the police about the disappearance of the deceased. While investigation into the fact of disappearance of the deceased pursuant to this report was going on, it appears that Bheema Naika, (P. W. 3) , resident of Kommanal while grazing his cattle near Ayanoor forest sensed some foul smell from a spot near, 'Korakalu'. On going closer, he saw, what appeared to him to be, a human skeleton with Khakhi half pants, Khakhi shirt and belt and a pair of chappals. He got frightened and reported to the village patel about what he had seen. As it was late in the evening the patel did not go to the spot that day. The following morning, August 4, 1967, P. W. 3 took the patel (Shahkargowda, P. W. 12) and some others to the spot and showed them what he had seen. The patel then reported the matter to the Sub-Inspector of Police, Shimoga Taluk (Ex. P-11) . Investigation then appears to have started for establishing the identity of the dead body, the cause of his death and, if his death was considered to be homicidal, who was the offender. As a result of the investigation the three accused persons as observed earlier, were sent up for trial.