NAYUDU SRIHARI Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Nayudu Srihari, the appellant before us, and fourteen others were tried by an Additional Sessions Judge of Machilipatnam for offences punishable under S. 148, 302, 302/149 and 302/114 Indian Penal Code. The trial ended in conviction of the appellant and three others (who were arrayed as A-2, A-1, A-3 and A-4 respectively) and acquittal of the rest. While the appellant along with A-3 and A-4 was convicted under Section 302 Indian Penal Code (simplicities) , A-1 was convicted under S. 302/114 Indian Penal Code. In appeal preferred by them the High court acquitted A-1, altered the conviction of A-3 and A-4 to Section 304 (Part II) Indian Penal Code and affirmed that of the appellant. Thereafter the three convicts filed a petition before this court seeking special leave to appeal against the judgment of the High court but such leave was granted to the appellant only.

(2.) (A) Briefly stated the prosecution case is that all the accused persons and K. Nagulu (the deceased) hailed from Village Nali in the district of Krishna. The residents of Nali were divided into two rival groups, one of which was headed by K. Venkataramaya and the other by A-13 (since acquitted). About. six months prior to the incident, with which we are concerned in this appeal, one Chapala Somaiah, who belonged to the party of A-13, was murdered. In that case Nagulu was one of the accused. Since then the followers of A-13 were waiting for an opportunity to kill him. (b) On 18/11/1988 Nagulu and his co-brother Viswanadhapalli Bhiksham (Public Witness 1, who was a resident of Village Sangameswaram, which was at a distance of 3 kilometres from Village Nali, went to the field of the former to drain out the excess water and spread pesticides. After completing their work they returned to the house of Nagulu and after taking their food went to sleep. At or about 2. 00 a. m. A-1, who belonged to the party of A-13, went to the house of Nagulu, woke him up and asked him to come along with him for doing some work in the field. Nagulu then woke up Public Witness 1 and told him that he was going along with A-1. Public Witness 1 then told him (Nagulu) that he would also depart for his village. Accordingly all three of them left the house. When they reached the field of one Nayudu Paramesu, Public Witness 1saw the appellant, A-3, A-4 and A-13 sitting there. On seeing Nagulu the appellant asked his associates to assault him. Then A-3 and A-4 gave him one blow each with their respective knives. When Nagulu fell down on being so assaulted, the appellant hacked him on his neck with a knife. In spite of the entreaties of Public Witness 1 not to kill Nagulu, the other accused persons started beating him indiscriminately with the weapons they were carrying. On seeing such assault on Nagulu, Public Witness 1 ran away from the place. When A-3, A-6, A-7 and A-8 chased him, Public Witness 1 ran towards the sea and hid himself in a grove. After sometime, he went to his village and from there to Village Nali, where he reported the incident to the parents of the deceased and D. Durgarao (Public Witness 6 and K. Sankararao (Public Witness 7. He then went to meet Venkataramaya, the leader of their faction and got the report which was to be lodged with the police, drafted by him. Public Witness 1 then went to the police station at Nagayalanka and lodged the report. (c) On that report (Ext. P-l) a case was registered and Inspector N. Krishna Murthy (Public Witness 12 took up investigation. He visited the scene of occurrence, held inquest upon the dead body of the deceased and sent it for post-mortem examination. He then prepared a site plan and seized some bloodstained earth from the spot. On completion of investigation he submitted charge-sheet against the fifteen accused persons and in due course the case was committed to the court of Session.

(3.) The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them and their defence was that they had been falsely implicated as they belonged to the group rival to that of Public Witness 1 and the deceased.