JINNAPPA PAREESH HULAKUND Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD the arguments of the learned counsel for the appellant and the learned state public prosecutor for the respondent-state at a considerable length and carefully perused the entire case records in detail with their assistance.

(2.) THIS appeal is by the accused jinnappa pareesh hulakund of halingali village and is directed against the judgment and order of the trial court whereby he has been convicted for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, for having caused the death of his wife Smt. Sunanda aged about 26 years, on 21-11-1995 around 2 p. m. in the afternoon, over a pathway situated in the land of P. W. 8, by committing assault on her with a weapon called sickle used for cutting the sugarcane crop, while the deceased sunanda was returning home with a bundle of grass on her head, along with her sister-in-law shobha, P. W. 3 along the pathway situated in the aforesaid land of P. W. 8-bhupal. He has been sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for the said offence. The accused has however been acquitted by the trial court of the charge under Section 506 of the IPC that during the course of the same transaction he had threatened P. W. 3-shobha to kill her with the same sickle when she tried to come to the rescue of the deceased.

(3.) THE prosecution sought to establish the guilt of the accused by adducing evidence relating to the motive of the crime; eye-witness to the occurrence and the recovery of the bloodstained weapon by which death had been caused and the bloodstained clothes of the accused which were worn by the accused at the time of occurrence in consequence to a statement made by the accused under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act and also the abscondence of the accused ever since the date of commission of such offence till his arrest by the police. The trial court believed the evidence and accepted the case of the prosecution insofar as the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and has convicted and sentenced the accused accordingly as stated supra. Hence, this appeal.