NAVEEN AND ORS. Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE order of judgment and conviction dated 13th November 2009 passed by II Additional Sessions Judge, Mysore in S.C. No. 217/2007 is called in question in these two appeals by the convicted accused.

(2.) CASE of the prosecution in brief is that deceased Raghu and the accused were friends; deceased was initially working at Mysore in the shop of PW -4 -Suresh Kumar Jain, who was owning a jewellery shop; deceased was goldsmith by profession; accused were also goldsmiths by profession; deceased and both the accused were co -workers in the very shop of PW -4 at initial stage; subsequently, deceased went to his native place at Hassan and joined the shop of PW -21 -H.K. Ganesh; the owner of the shop at Hassan viz., PW -21 used to send the prepared gold ornaments to the shop of PW -4 for handing over the same; inturn PW -4 used to send back equal amount of gold ingots apart from making charges to PW -21 through deceased; on the date of the incident i.e., on 15.5.2007 also, PW -21 had sent certain gold ornaments weighing 309 grams with the deceased to hand over the same to the shop of PW -4; inturn the deceased came to Mysore and handed over the gold ornaments to PW -4; consequently PW -4 gave gold ingots weighing 309 gm and making charges of Rs. 10,000/ - to the deceased for handing over the same to PW -4; after receiving the gold ingots and Rs. 10,000/ - from PW -4, the deceased went to the shop of PW -9 who was his cousin for casual talks; while deceased was talking to PW -9 in his shop, a telephone call came from accused No. 1 to the deceased; on enquiry, deceased disclosed before PW -9 that it was accused No. 1 who is talking to him over phone; since PW -9 had got some work with accused No. 1, he also talked to accused No. 1 from the very phone of the deceased; deceased went missing after 9.00 p.m. and his telephone was switched off; his dead -body was found near Ambedkar Nagar New Layout near Bharath nagar on the way to Rammanahalli village, outskirts of Mysore; since the unknown dead body was found in the early hours of 16.5.2007, at about 8.45 p.m., UDR 11/2007 came to be registered in Mysore Rural police station; subsequently the brother of the deceased identified the dead body and he lodged the complaint as per Ex -P1 at about 12.15 p.m. on 18.5.2007 before Mysore(South) Rural police station, which came to be registered in Cr. No. 137/2007. During the course of investigation of the crime, both the accused were arrested; based on their voluntary statements, certain materials were recovered; the call details of the deceased were secured by the Investigation Officer and ultimately charge -sheet came to be filed by PW -32 -Inspector of Police against both the accused for the offences punishable under sections 302 and 201 IPC and sentenced them accordingly.

(3.) THE call details of mobile phone of the deceased which was standing in the name of Smt. Laxmi (sister of the deceased) which disclose that deceased had telephonic conversation with accused No. 1 for three times just prior to the incident."