CHIKKEGOWDA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sixteen (16) accused were put to trial for the charges of unlawful assembly and culpable homicide amounting to murder of one Mohan Kumar (deceased) and for the charges of causing grievous hurt and outraging modesty of the injured Smt. Annapurna (PW-1), the wife of the deceased. During trial, accused no.10 died, as such, proceedings against him were abated. The trial proceeded against the surviving fifteen (15) accused being accused nos.1 to 9 and 11 to 16. The Trial Court vide judgment dtd. 13/9/2010 acquitted all the accused of all the charges framed against them in Sessions Case Nos.144 of 2003 and 196 of 2003. It would be relevant to note that Session Case No.144 of 2003 proceeded against accused nos.2 to 16 as accused no.1 had been absconding, however, later on, when he was arrested his trial was also committed and was registered as Session Case No.196 of 2003.

(2.) Aggrieved by the judgment of the Trial Court, the State preferred Criminal Appeal No.161 of 2011 against all the surviving fifteen (15) accused, whereas the informant/injured preferred Criminal Appeal No.335 of 2011 against accused nos.2 to 9 and 11 to 16 and further preferred Criminal Appeal No.345 of 2011 against accused no.1. All the three appeals were clubbed together and vide common judgment dtd. 29/10/2014, the appeals were partly allowed. The High Court confirmed the acquittal of accused nos.7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 of all the charges and at the same time convicted the accused Nos.1 to 6 and 11 for offences punishable under Ss. 143, 147, 148, 324, 302 read with Sec. 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860[IPC] and awarded them life sentence under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 149 IPC and further lesser punishment under the other offences. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. The High Court acquitted the above convicted accused from the offences under Ss. 326, 354, 341, 307 read with Sec. 149 IPC. Aggrieved by their conviction, Appeal Nos.541 and 543 of 2015 has been preferred by the convicted accused nos.1 to 6. Further, Appeal Nos.1509-1510 of 2015 has been preferred by the accused no.11.

(3.) On the fateful day, i.e., 16/3/2003, at about 06:00 a.m., when the deceased came out of his house in the village carrying milk to the dairy, the sixteen (16) accused persons, who bore previous enmity with the deceased and the prosecution witnesses, blocked his way and assaulted him with dangerous weapons, causing fifteen (15) injuries as per the post-mortem report. They further inflicted life-threatening injuries on the wife of the deceased (PW-1), who had tried to save and shield her husband and stop the accused from assaulting him. Thereafter, upon the arrival of other residents of the village, the accused persons fled the scene of crime.