NAGALINGAPPA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Criminal Petition No.102355/2022 is filed by accused Nos.2 to 4 and Criminal Petition No.102437/2022 is filed by accused No.5. Both the petitions are filed under Sec. 439 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as ' Cr.P.C .', for brevity) seeking bail in crime No.69/2022 of Karatagi Police Station registered for the offences punishable under Ss. 302 , 504 , 120-B , 109 read with 149 of the Indian Penal Code , 1860 (hereinafter referred to as ' IPC ', for brevity).

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that, one Hanumant S/o Durugappa Kwadiger has filed complaint stating that he is having brother by name Veeresh (deceased) and two other brothers and sister. The said deceased Veeresh, complainant and Jyoti are married. The deceased Veeresh is having three sons. The deceased Veeresh prior to his marriage had love affair with one Netravati resident of Hulagi village. After marriage, the deceased Veeresh has no contact with said Netravati. The said Netravati is married to accused No.1-Fakirappa. The said Netravati has made a phone call to deceased Veeresh during the marriage of Jyoti, the sister of deceased Veeresh and the same came to the knowledge of accused No.1-Fakirappa and he threatened the deceased over phone call to kill and the parents of the deceased had advised accused No.1 to leave the matter. It is further stated that on 3/4/2022 at 7:15 p.m, when the complainant was in his house at that time, CW.6-Gopi made a phone call and told that, some four unknown person have assaulted the deceased Veeresh on his face with chopper and asked him to come there. The complainant and others went to the shop of CW.6- Gopi and saw the dead body of Veeresh and there were injuries on his face and head, which were caused by chopper. They enquired CW.6-Gopi and he told that on 3/4/2022 at 7:05 p.m when he was in his shop, the deceased Veeresh, CW.7-Latif, CW.8-Mariyappa @ Mudiyappa were sitting drinking cold-drinks in his shop and at that time, four persons came from bus-stand side to his shop and three persons were standing outside and one person came inside and asked for drinks by making the sign and all three persons, who were standing outside came inside the shop and they assaulted the deceased Veeresh with chopper brought by them on his face and head and the persons present stopped assaulting. CWs.7 and 8, who were sitting in the shop ran away due to fear of life and the said persons went with the chopper and they were of the age of 30 to 32 years of light black colour, one person is little dark and three persons are having height of 5 feet 6 inch and one person was wearing t-shirt and other persons were wearing shirts and among them, one person had tied towel to his head and he can identify them. Then they took the deceased Veeresh in 108 ambulance to Government hospital, Karatagi at 7:40 p.m, and the doctor who examined told that he is no more. The said complaint came to be registered in Crime No.69/2022 of Karatagi Police Station for the offence under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 of IPC against accused Nos.1 and three others. Accused Nos.2 and 3 came to be arrested on 11/4/2022, accused No.4 came to be arrested on 17/5/2022 and accused No.5 came to be arrested on 6/4/2022. The investigating officer after investigation filed charge-sheet against accused Nos.1 to 5. Charge-sheet is filed against accused Nos.1 to 4 for the offence punishable under Ss. 302 , 504 , 120(B) read with Sec. 149 of IPC and against accused No.5 for the offence punishable under Ss. 109 and 120(B) of IPC. The petitioners-accused Nos.2 to 4 filed Criminal Miscellaneous No.716/2022 and the petitioner- accused No.5 filed Criminal Miscellaneous No.717/2022 seeking bail and the said petitions came to be rejected by learned 1st Additional District and Sessions Judge, Koppal (Sitting at Gangavathi) by orders dtd. 6/8/2022 and 17/8/2022 respectively. Therefore, the petitioners-accused Nos.2 to 5 are before this Court seeking bail.

(3.) Heard the arguments of learned counsel appearing for the petitioners/accused Nos.2 to 5 and learned High Court Government Pleader for the respondent-State.