THE STATE OF KARNATAKA Vs. MURUGESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Judgment & Order of acquittal dated 16.2.2012 passed by the Fast Track Court, KGF in S.C. No. 56/2011 is called in question in this appeal by the State.

(2.) Case of the prosecution in brief is that the deceased Subramani @ Mani was having Tempo Trax (Taxi); the accused used to hire the said vehicle; the accused had spent certain amount of money for repairing the said vehicle and such amount spent by the accused was not returned by the deceased; in that regard, the dispute arose between the accused and the deceased; the accused used to pressurize the deceased to return the amount spent by him for repairing the vehicle or to mortgage the documents of the taxi in his favour; on 30.4.2010 at about 11 a.m. the accused went to the house of the deceased and demanded money; the deceased had told the accused to come at 2 p.m. to collect the documents of the vehicle; the accused went to the house of the deceased at 3 p.m. and asked to give the documents of the vehicle; however the deceased did not hand over the vehicle documents to the accused; being enraged, the accused took away mobile, mobile charger and the money kept in the Hundi from the house of the deceased; thereafter having come to know that the deceased would be going to Railway Station for boarding the train, the accused was waiting for the deceased at about 6 p.m. on his TVS motorcycle near Shantinagar Cross; at about 10.30 p.m., the deceased came there and the accused asked him to give money or otherwise the documents of the vehicle; the deceased Subramani asked the accused to drop him at the Railway Station and that he would give money at the Railway Station; accordingly, the accused took the deceased on his motorcycle to the Railway Station, but on that day, the Kavery Express train which was supposed to be boarded by the deceased was late and hence both of them went to a Bar at Deshihally; However the said Bar was closed and they returned to the Railway Station at 11.30 p.m; the accused stopped the TVS moped at the Railway Station and asked the deceased to give money; the deceased Subramani strangely threw his bag containing money in a bush and told that he has no money; accused being enraged by the same, caught hold of the deceased and quarreled with him; he assaulted the deceased on his head with club forcibly and thereafter assaulted him with stone 5 -6 times on the head, consequent upon which the deceased died on the spot; thereafter in order to conceal the offence, the accused took out the clothes out of the bag of the deceased and set the dead body as well as the clothes of the deceased on fire.

(3.) The prosecution in order to prove its case in all examined 19 witnesses and got marked 17 documents and 23 Material Objects. On behalf of the defence, one Exhibit came to be marked.