PEDDA Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants, who were accused 1 to 7 in the lower Court, have been convicted of rioting and sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment and some of them to further imprisonment for other offences found to be committed by them. Of the six charges framed in the case, No. 1 relates to rioting, No. 2 to the murder alleged to have been committed by Accused 2, 3, & 11, the third to an offence-under Section 302/149, I. P. C. by accused 1 to 7, 9 and 10, as members of the unlawful assembly, in pursuance of the common object of which accused 2, 8 and 11 murdered Basavanna Gowda. The other charges relate to tile individual acts committed by some of the accused, it is rather surprising that although the charges as framed by the Magistrate arc said to have been amended before the trial, there is no mention of the date in any of the charges on which any of the offences is alleged to have been committed. The omission is not material as it was well understood to be 23-9-1950 when the election to the village Panchayath was concluded by the Amildar of Harihar in Hindaskalte a village about 12 miles from Harihar. The election was over by 5 P. M. and at about 5-45 P. M. in the outskirts of the village at a distance of about. 3 furlongs from the place where the election was held, one Basavanna Gowda of about 30 years of age was brutaily assaulted on the road between Malebannur and Nandagudi and as a result of the multiple injuries including the fracture of the skull caused to him he expired before reaching the hospital at Malebannur. Besides Basavanna Gowda, his brother P. W. 1 and two others, P. Ws. 3 and 12, who accompanied him, were also injured at the time. Accused 5 was charged under Section 323. for causing hurt to P. W. 1 and similarly accused 1, 8 and 4 for causing hurt to P. W. 2. Accused 1, 8 to 7, 9 and 10 were also changed with having caused hurt to Basavanna Gowda. Of the 12 accused against whom the charge-sheet was placed, accused 13 was discharged in the Court of the Committing Magistrate. The learned Sessions Judge held that none of the accused was guilty of murder directly or constructively and acquitted accused 8 to 11 completely. The correctness of the conviction of accused l to 7 under Section 143 and accused 1 to 5 of other offences in addition is questioned in the appeal filed by them. The Government have also preferred an appeal seeking conviction of the appellants as well as accused 8 to 11 for the offence under Section 302/149, I. P. C.

(2.) There is undisputed evidence that Basavanna Gowda, a resident of Hallihalu village was in Hindaskatte in the afternoon of 23-9-1950 and while returning to his village with his brother and two others they were attacked at about 6 P. M. on the road by a number of persons and violently beaten with, stones, sticks etc, that almost immediately the daffedar and four Constables arrived at the spot, that the Amildar too went there a few minutes later and observed Basavaana Gowda lying in a precarious condition, speechless surrounded by a large crowd, and that Basavamm Gowda and P. Ws. 1 and 2 were removed to the hospital at Malebannur for treatment but Easavanna Gowda was dead before any treatment could be given.

(3.) The material evidence on the side of the prosecution to show that the accused were perpetrators of or participants in the crime is that of P. Ws. 1, 2 and 12, eye-witnesses to the attack from the beginning and that of P. W. 11, the dalledar and the Constables P. Ws. 13, 17, 18 and 19 who proceeded to the spot after hearing the cry of alarm or distress. Of these, the statement Of P. W. 12 has to be discounted as his presence at the time of the assault is open to doubt in view of the police witnesses saying that they saw him and his denial of having seen them. P. W. 2 admittedly is a member of a faction opposed to that of the accused and a competitor with some of the accused for the election to the village Pan-chayath. On the first day of his examination in Court he stated :