GANESH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused No.1/appellant who has been convicted for the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 201 read with Sec. 34 of IPC, has preferred this appeal against the Judgment of conviction and order on sentence dtd. 8/9/2023, passed against him in Sessions Case No.101/2021 by the III Additional District and Sessions Judge, Dharwad (Special Judge for CBI/ACB/KLA Cases) (for short, 'the trial Court').

(2.) For the sake of convenience, the parties herein are referred to as per their ranking before the trial Court.

(3.) Brief facts leading to this appeal are that the Vidyagiri Police, Dharwad submitted the charge sheet against accused Nos.1 and 2 for the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 201 read with Sec. 34 of IPC. It is alleged by the prosecution that accused Nos.1 and 2 were in illicit relationship and deceased got doubt about them and used to object for the same, for which accused No.1 pacified and consoled her. On 11/8/2021 between 12.00 and 3.00 p.m., accused Nos.1 and 2 went to an under-construction building of accused No.1 to have sexual intercourse. At that time, the deceased was present in the said building and started quarreling with accused No.2 stating that they have cheated her, accused No.1 intervened and assaulted with hands to the deceased, at that time, the deceased out of fear that they may kill her, was climbing the ladder and at that movement both accused Nos.1 and 2 out of fear that deceased may make illegal relationship public and also that she will come in the way of their illegal relationship, with a common intention, by chasing the deceased, accused No.1 assaulted with shovel to the head and accused No.2 assaulted with brick to her back and committed her murder. On the same day, after committing murder to conceal the evidence, the accused have washed the shovel and kept the said shovel and brick in the ground floor and accused No.1 washed his blood stained pant in the house of accused No.2 and kept his blood stained jerkin in the said house and destroyed the evidence. Therefore, the present complaint was filed and on the basis of the said information, the police registered a case in Crime No.129/2021 for the offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 201 read with Sec. 34 of IPC and after investigation the Investigating Officer has submitted the charge sheet against the accused for the commission of offences punishable under Ss. 302 and 201 read with Sec. 34 of IPC. After filing the charge sheet, the jurisdictional Magistrate took the cognizance for the alleged commission of offences and a case was registered in Criminal case No.4795/2021 and thereafter the case was committed to the Sessions Court, then the case was registered in Sessions Case No.101/2021.