STATE OF KARNATAKA Vs. R RAJU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE State is in appeal questioning the legality of the judgment and order of acquittal passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Mysore, acquitting the respondents herein of the offence punishable under Sections 341 and 302 read with section 34 of the I. P. C.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution in brief is as under: one Jawarappa the deceased was residing along with his wife Lalithamma (PW-4) and daughter Rekha (PW 5) at Muniesh-waranagara, Mysore, and his house was amidst a number of houses together called as vatara and the house of one Gowaramma, accused Raju and Ravi were also situated in the same premises and on 10-2-1996 at about 8 p. m. when Jawarappa returned home, he Heard some verbal quarrel going on in the house of one Mahadevi in connection with some loan transaction and Jawarappa went up the stairs and pacified the quarrel by advising the parties to come after Mahadevi's husband returns home. After this incident, around 9. 20 p. m. Mahadevi's husband came there and again a quarrel took place in the house of Mahadevi and once again Jawarappa went to settle the quarrel. After this incident, Jawarappa told the quarrelling parties to talk of Maniamma (A2 wife of A1) when Maniamma returns home. This advice given by Jawarappa upset the accused Raju and he questioned Jawarappa as to why he told the quarrelling parties to call maniamma and following this, Jawarappa was assaulted by Al, A2 as well as A3 and they pushed Jawarappa down the staircase and A2 squeezed the testicles of Jawarappa. After this incident, Jawarappa came to his house and then decided to go to the police station to lodge the complaint against the accused persons and at about 11 p. m. when Jawarappa went out of the house through the back door of the house of Gowramma and when he was followed by his wife (PW 4) and daughter (PW 5 ). the accused persons restrained Jawarappa and questioned him for deciding to go to the police station to lodge complaint against them and thereafter, the accused Maniamma caught hold of the tuft of Jawarappa and pulled it and this was followed by accused Raju kicking on the testicles of Jawarappa and again the accused ravi assaulted on the chest of Jawarappa with hands. Unable to bear the pain, Jawarappa fell down and by the time PW 4 and 5 went near him, Jawarappa had died at the spot. A complaint to the above effect was given by lalithamma PW 4 and it was lodged on 11/ 12-2-1996 at 00. 30 hours and a case was registered in Cr. No. 38/96 against the accused persons.

(3.) PW 17 Satyanarayana the PSI received the complaint given orally by PW 4 and reduced the same into writing as per Ex. P-5 and thereafter, the Circle Inspector took over the investigation. PW 19 Ismail Sheriff after taking over the investigation held the spot panchnama as per Ex. P-3 and the inquest was conducted as per Ex. P-4. The clothes of the deceased were seized and after the arrest of the accused, their voluntary statements were recorded. Sketch map of the scene of offence was also obtained through PWD Engineer as per Ext. P-17. The post-mortem examination was conducted by PW 18 and as the doctor was not very sure of the cause of death, the viscera was sent for chemical examination and subsequently, the final opinion was given by the doctor based on circumstantial evidence furnished by the I. O. and the doctor opined that the cause of death was due to vagal inhibition consequent to non-demonstrable blunt injury to the trigger zone of the body in the form of fisting and kicking. Ex. P-16 is the P. M. report given by the said doctor. On completion of the investigation, the charge-sheet was submitted.