SHANKARAPPA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have heard the learned counsel Sri. Srinand A. Pachhapure for the appellant/accused and learned Addl.SPP Sri. V. M. Banakar for the respondent/state.

(2.) The appellant/accused is before this Court challenging the legality and correctness of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Gadag, in S.C.No.71/2012 dated 23.04.2016, whereunder the accused was convicted for the offences punishable under Section 302 of IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.25,000/- with default sentence to undergo imprisonment for six months.

(3.) The brief facts of the case as averred in the prosecution case are that, in the year 2008, accused had committed rape on the daughter of the complainant and in that context, a case was registered in S.C.No.50/2009. In the said case, daughter of the complainant, who is deceased in the instant case, gave her evidence before the Court on 29.05.2012 and immediately thereafter accused threatened the deceased for having given evidence in the said case, by saying that he is going to commit her murder. It is further alleged that, when the deceased was sleeping on the katta in front of the house along with her son PW5, in the intervening night on 16.06.2012 and 17.06.2012, at about 2.00 am to 3.00 am, accused assaulted the deceased with an axe on her throat and committed her murder. Next day morning when one Kalakamma came and informed to the complainant that her daughter was lying injured, she rushed to the spot and found her daughter lying dead. When she woke up the son of the deceased, who was sleeping, he narrated the story.