OMKARMURTHY Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant/accused filed the present criminal appeal against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dtd. 8/12/10/2010 made in S.C. No.52/2008 on the file of the I Additional Sessions Judge, Tumkur, convicting and sentencing him for the offences punishable under Ss. 376, 302 and 201 of IPC. By the impugned judgment, the trial Court sentenced the appellant/accused to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.30,000.00 for the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of IPC and sentenced to undergo Simple Imprisonment for seven years and to pay fine of Rs.20,000.00 for the offence punishable under Sec. 376 of IPC and to undergo Simple Imprisonment for two years and to pay fine of Rs.10,000.00 for the offence punishable under Sec. 201 of IPC, with default sentences.

(2.) It is the case of the prosecution that the accused is the resident of Lingadahalli, Mallipatna, Arakalagud taluk, Hassan district and the deceased Sahana, aged about 8 years is the resident of Oorukere village in Tumkur district and the mother of the accused and mother of the deceased are sisters and though they are residing in different villages in different districts, the accused used to come to the house of the deceased. About 20 days prior to the date of the alleged incident, the accused has come to the house of the deceased and started to reside in the house of the deceased itself. When things stood thus, on 18/11/2007 in the morning, the mother of the deceased had left the village to go to attend the marriage at Gubbi and similarly, the father of the deceased had left the village to go to temple at Mayasandra village. At the time of parents leaving the house, the deceased, her elder sister - Keerthana, aged about 12 years and accused were only present in the house of the deceased at Oorukere village and accordingly, mother of the deceased had asked the accused to take care of her daughters till she return back to the house. After the parents of the deceased Sahana left the house, at about 11.00 a.m. on the same day, the accused had taken Sahana on the bicycle saying that he would purchase chocolate for her and accordingly, he went towards the shop by taking Sahana on the bicycle and he purchased chocolate for Sahana in the shop of PW.24 - Rathnaiah Shetty and thereafter he alongwith Sahana went towards garden land of father of the deceased situated nearby the village and in the garden land, he committed rape on Sahana forcibly. Thereafter to screen off from the sexual assault, the accused committed the murder of the deceased by suffocating her neck. Thereafter, in order to destroy the evidence of murder including rape, he buried the dead body in the said garden land of father of the deceased itself by digging a pit and returned back to the house alone. When he returned back to the house, Hemalatha @ Keerthi, elder sister of Sahana asked about whereabouts of Sahana and accused told that she is playing a game in front of house of one Manjayya. Thereafter, the father of the deceased has returned back to the house at 2.00 p.m. and when he asked about the whereabouts of Sahana, the accused told him that Sahana is playing in front of house of one Manjayya. Accordingly, father of the deceased Sahana went there, but Sahana was not at all present in front of house of Manjayya and he started to search about Sahana. At that time, the accused also went by taking bicycle of neighbours of Oorukere village to search about Sahana and ultimately, he left the Oorukere village on the same day itself and reached the house of his maternal grand-mother residing elsewhere. On the same day i.e., 18/11/2007, father of the deceased filed a missing complaint and accordingly, the case has been registered in Tumkur Rural Police Station in Crime No.331/2007 and investigation was taken up by the CPI, Tumkur Rural circle and ultimately on 22/11/2007, father of the deceased filed one more missing complaint stating that the accused also found missing from 18/11/2007. However, on the same day i.e., on 22/11/2007, the CPI, Tumkur Rural Police had come to the garden land of Nagaraju along with the accused and the accused gave voluntary statement before the CPI and admitted the guilt and also admitted that he buried the dead body in the garden land of Nagaraju by committing rape on her. Thereafter in presence of the Tahasildar and Panchas, the dead body was removed from the pit. The CPI after completion of investigation, has filed the charge sheet against the accused for the offences punishable under Ss. 376, 302 and 201 of IPC.

(3.) The jurisdictional Magistrate exercising the powers under Sec. 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, committed the case to the Court of Sessions. The learned Sessions Judge secured the presence of the accused and framed the charge against the accused for the offences punishable under the provisions of Ss. 376, 302 and 201 of IPC and read over and explained to the accused in the language known to him, who pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.