C T PONNAPPA ALIAS CHUPPI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and sentence recorded by the learned Sessions Judge, Kodagu, Madikeri, convicting the accused appellant for the offence under Section 302 of the ipc and Sections 3 and 7 read with Sections 30 and 25 of the Indian arms Act and sentencing him to suffer imprisonment for life and also to undergo imprisonment for six months for the offence under Section 30 and three years for the offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act. According to the prosecution, the accused C. T. Ponnappa alias Chuppi murdered his elder brother Chengappa on the morning of 11-8-1996 at about 8. 45 a. m. in the premises of his residence "b. Kananakadu" at Badaga banangala Village within the jurisdiction of Sidhapur Police Station in madikeri Taluk.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution in brief is as follows. The accused and deceased are the two sons of P. W. 7-Dechamma. Deceased Chengappa was married to P. W. 12-Reshma about two years prior to his death. The father of the accused and the deceased viz. , Thimmaiah died 3 years prior to the date of incident. Mr. Thimmaiah was a rich man. He owned about 200 acres of agricultural land comprising coffee estate, paddy fields, other movable and immovable properties consisting of spacious bungalow and workers sheds and residential houses at Mysore and apartments at Bangalore. He had cash deposits in Banks to the extent of rs. Ten Lakhs and he had stored about 800 bags of coffee seeds. A week prior to his death, the father of the accused and deceased had made a will in the presence of P. W. 8-K. G. Uthappa, an Advocate and settled both movable and immovable properties to his sons and wife without reserving any property to himself. The sons were not happy with the allotment of shares to them by their father. Therefore, the parties entered into mutual written agreements after the death of their father as per Exs. P. 46 and P. 47. The accused got 100 acres of agricultural land including coffee estate under the Will and the deceased got about 89 acres and 20 acres was given to their mother, P. W. 7. The residential house was ordered to be retained by any one of the sons, but created life interest to his wife Dechamma, whoever relinquished the share in the house was allowed to sell 784 bags of coffee which was harvested, to be utilised for construction of another house. The brothers lived together with their mother for some time. Disputes arose regarding sharing of movable and also immovable properties and hence they divided the properties in accordance with the mutual agreement, Exs. P. 46 and P. 47. Deceased Chengappa opted to collect 784 bags of coffee in lieu of share in the family house. The accused agreed to the proposal. Consequently, the deceased Chengappa and his wife Reshma shifted to a rented premises at a place called Pollybetta. It is alleged that the deceased had to walk out of the family house because of persistent harassment caused to him by his brother. Deceased Chengappa had a routine habit of visiting his mother every morning and also to supervise the coffee estate which had fallen to his share. P. W. 7-Dechamma was still affectionate to him. It was also his practice that after meeting his mother and going around the estate, he used to come back to his house with a can of milk from the coffee estate. The further allegation of the prosecution is that accused Ponnappa was not satisfied with the movable and immovable properties which he got. Therefore, it is alleged that he was sending threats of causing harm to Chengappa and that the deceased had in fact informed his wife about impending danger to his life. In spite of the advice of his wife to inform the same to the police, he declined to do so as it would have affected the prestige of the family.

(3.) ACCORDING to the prosecution on 11-8-1996 at about 7. 15 a. m. the deceased, as usual left his house in his Gypsy to supervise the estate and visit his mother. P. W. 12-Reshma saw her husband going towards coffee estate in Gypsy van. At about 8. 15 a. m. P. W. 7-Dechamma noticed the accused and the deceased were talking to each other and for some time they were quarrelling which led to squabble and at that time the accused is stated to have gone inside the house and brought double barrel gun and shot his brother. P. W. 7-Dechamma, their cook Laxmana and others came to the place of incident. P. W. 7 ordered P. W. 6 to take the gun which was dropped there and keep it inside the house and then asked P. W. 6 to bring a bed and they put the injured Chengappa in the same Gypsy and took him to American Hospital at Ammathi. P. W. 12 reshma who was working near her house saw her husband's Gypsy passing towards Ammathi. Her mother-in-law Dechamma was sitting next to the driver. Dechamma gave her signal to follow her in a taxi. Both of them reached American Hospital where P. W. 5-Dr. Rukmini mandanna examined the injured Chengappa and declared him dead. Then they brought the dead body to the house. Somebody telephoned the police about the death of Chengappa in their estate. The message reached P. W. 13-Marishetty at about 2 p. m. He therefore visited the house of P. W. 7 who gave a written complaint as per Ex. P. 21 which was drafted by P. W. 4-Madaiah. P. W. 13 registered a case in Crime No. 92 of 1996 at Sidhapur Police Station on the basis of the said complaint against the accused under Section 302 of the IPC. FIR was submitted to the jurisdictional Magistrate. In the meantime P. W. 14-S. R. S. Shetty, the Circle Inspector, Madikeri Rural Police Station, who received the message, promptly visited the place of incident and took over further investigation of this case from P. W. 13. He conducted inquest over the dead body in the presence of P. W. 10-B. K. Madappa as in Ex. P. 50. At about 6 p. m. the accused was produced before the Circle Inspector who arrested him and recorded his voluntary statement. Thereafter, he took the hand wash (Article 9) of the accused and prepared a mahazar as per ex. P. 51. A requisition was sent to P. W. 1 requesting him to come over to the place of incident and conduct post-mortem on the dead body of the deceased Chengappa. Accordingly, P. W. 1 conducted post-mortem between 4. 45 and 6. 30 p. m. on the same day and issued a report as per Ex. P. 3. P. W. 14 recovered M. O. 10-double barrel gun from the house of the accused. According to the prosecution, it was seized at the instance of the accused which was kept in the table of his house, all the seized articles were sent to chemical examination. M. O. 10-double barrel gun and the clothes of the deceased were specially packed and sealed and sent to P. W. 2-N. G. Prabhakar, ballistic expert for his examination and opinion. Some of the seized articles including the hand wash and jerkin, m. O. 1 which was on his person, were sent to Bombay by P. W. 2 for farther examination and expert's opinion. Subsequently, upon a request made by P. W. 12-Reshma, the Government entrusted the further investigation of this case to COD, Karnataka and P. W. 16-B. S. Jayaraj, Inspector of Police, COD took over further investigation of this case. He made efforts to obtain further opinion of P. Ws. 1 and 2 and on completion of formalities of investigation, laid a charge-sheet against the accused for offences punishable under Section 301 of the IPC and Sections 30 and 25 of the Indian Arms Act.