T ALIBI Vs. GOVERNMENT OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant (accused) has been convicted by the Sessions Judge,. Shimoga Division, in Shimoga Sessions Case No. 4,/ 50-51 under Section 304(2), I.P.C., and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years. The charge against him was that he committed murder by intentionally or knowingly causing the death or one Mahomed, a brother-in-law of the accused's brother. P.W. 1 and the deceased are said to have gone to Bhadravati on the night of 1-5-1950 to collect some debts said to be due to them by the accused, and when they demanded the same the accused is said to have got enraged; and consequently there was a quarrel between the deceased and the accused when the latter is said to have stabbed the deceased in the back with the Knife M. O. 1 as a result of which Mahomed died very shortly thereafter.

(2.) That the accused was responsible for the knife injury on the deceased and for his death admits of very little doubt. In his statement both before the Committing Court and in the Sessions Court the accused has admittted his presence at the scene of occurrence and has stated that though P.W. 1 and the deceased beat him, he did not stab the deceased. P.W. 1 has given a detailed version of the occurrence. He has deposed that the accused remonstrated why both P.W. 1 and the deceased had gone to collect money from him, that after heated words there was a hand to hand fight between the deceased and the accused, that the deceased fell down and the accused took out a knife from the left side of his waist and hit the deceased in the back, that the deceased then got up and snatched the knife from the accused, that he himself went to separate them when the accused also hit him and kicked him, that two of his caste people took away the accused, that the deceased said he had lost much blood and asked the witness to take him to the hospital and inform the police and that after walking a few steps he passed away. It was suggested rather weakly that P. W. I himself might have killed the deceased, and some reliance was placed on some casual admission during the cross-examination of P.W. 6, wife of Mahomed, that P.W. 1 and her husband were not on cordial terms. It is possible that she merely meant thereby that they were not very friendly and that does not indicate any Ill-feeling between them. It is very improbable that P.W. 1 and the deceased would have gone together on bicycle from Shimoga to Bhadravati between 8 and 11 p.m., that night if they' were not friendly, and there is absolutely no motive suggested why P.W. 1 should kill his own brotherin- law.

(3.) P.Ws. 2, 3, 4 and 5 have corroborated P.W. 1 as regards the scuffle between the accused, and P.W. 2 has deposed that he also saw the accused stabbing the deceased on his back. P.W. 19, who was a resident of Bhadravati at the time of the occurrence, has stated that P.W. 1 and the deceased came to his shop at about 10 p.m., and asked for accused Alibi and that late In the evening he saw the deceased and the accused conversing and that subsequently Mahomed said that Alibi had stabbed him with a dagger. He has identified M. O. 1 and has stated that he had seen a knife similar to it in the accused's shop though he cannot swear that it is the same as M. O. 1 and that it was being used to cut ropes.