SRI BEERAPPA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is one of the most unhappy and disgraceful cases that have come before the Courts in recent times. The facts of the case make sad reading in so far as the appellant before us is a poor villager who was working as a coolie. The appellant's wife had died and he married one Sharadamma who already had a son through her previous marriage. Thereafter the accused and Sharadamma had three children and it is evident to us from the record that for a variety of reasons including the economic condition of the parties, that the relations between husband and wife got estranged. Sharadamma thereafter went to reside separately in a room at a village by the name of Henchinasiddapura and the accused continued to stay for sometime at Agaradahalli. Sharadamma had taken the three children with her and she was also residing with her son Sanjeeva. Sometime prior to the incident the accused who was reduced to desperate economic conditions, went to Sharadamma and asked her for help. There is some suggestion to the effect that he was trying to persuade her to transfer some lands to his name but in any event, what transpired was that Sharadamma had agreed to allow him to occupy a corner of the room in which she and the family were staying. It is material for us to point out that the treatment which the accused received from Sharadamma at this point of time when he was in extreme distress was one of considerable lack of consideration and is summarised from the fact that the accused in his confession has stated that she condescended to allow him to partake of some food and lie in one corner of the room provided he did not interfere with anybody else. This aspect of the matter is of some significance because this is an unusual case where the situation got completely out of control after some time and the appellant's learned advocate has argued at some length with regard to these special features of the case.

(2.) THE incident in question took place shortly after midnight at 1.7.92. The accused is alleged to have attacked Sharadamma at about 1.30 A.M. with a 'machu' while she was sleeping. The medical evidence indicates that he has dealt one severe blow on the neck which measured 6 inches followed by two more blows around the same region with an equal degree of violence. The impact of the attack was so severe that Sharadamma died on the spot. There was a commotion because the children woke up and raised an alarm and once it was found that Sharadamma was dead, those present decided not to interfere with the situation as it obtained and to inform the police. The accused is alleged to have closed the door, put a lock on it and then made his way to the police station where he presented himself along with the children and informed the police officer of what had happened. The accused was placed under arrest and since his clothes were found to be blood stained, the police attached these clothes. They also contend that the accused offered to produce the murder weapon and that he led the police to the room, opened the door with the key that he was in his possession where the police found the body of Sharadamma lying in a pool of blood at which time the accused is alleged to have produced the weapon which had been placed in a gunnybag and which was found to be blood stained. The police completed the necessary formalities and sent the body for post mortem examination. There is one last development of some significance namely that it is alleged that on the evening of 1.7.1992, the accused is alleged to have expressed the desire to make a complete confession and the police officer accordingly contacted the J.M.F.C. It was directed that the accused be transferred to judicial custody where he remained for the next 5 to 6 days. On 7.7.1992 the J.M.F.C. recorded the confession statement of the accused under Section 164 Cr.P.C. It is this statement that is the most crucial piece of evidence in this case perhaps the most unhappy part of the episode.

(3.) BRIEFLY stated, the accused indicated in that statement of his that the relationship between him and Sharadamma had deteriorated and that she had gone away to stay separately, he states that among other things, a rumour had started in the village that there was a strange and illicit intimacy between Sharadamma and Sanjeeva who was her own son through her previous marriage. The accused has stated that among other things, his young daughter had complained to him that it was most difficult for them to continue to sleep in the same room when sexual activity was going on between the mother and son virtually in the same place. According to the accused, his economic condition was extremely bad and he therefore come to see Sharadamma and to ask her for help. All that she agreed to permit him was to partake of some food and to lie in one corner of the room provided he did not interfere with anybody else. He has given an elaborate description of what he witnessed between mother and son two nights prior to the incident. According to the accused, he had pretended to be asleep and was a virtual eye witness to the sexual activity that was going on between the couple in the same room who unfortunately enough happened to be his own wife and his foster son. The accused has described how disturbed he was and how terrible her reaction to witnessing such an incident was. From what he states, it is clear that he was so traumatized by the activities on that night that it disturbed him immensely. From the statements made by him, what horrified him much more than the indulgence in sex was that it was an incestuous relationship between a mother and her own son and this was something that so completely shattered the mind of the accused that he just could not conceive of how Sharadamma could even indulge in acts of this type. It is clear from the statements made by him in the confession that he could not believe ever that a mother could indulge in such acts with her own son. According to him, on the night in question he was so mentally disturbed that he was awake and late that night when he got up and looked at Sharadamma, the activities of the night before crowded into his mind and drove him virtually into a state of franzy. He picked up the machu and assaulted Sharadamma with it and thereafter stood there quietly. It is this confession that has been relied upon very heavily by the learned trial Judge even though the accused has retracted it about one month later. We need to point out that even though the children were cited as witnesses that they have turned hostile and that there is very little evidence on record which the trial Court found worthy of acceptance. The learned Judge relied on the fact that the clothes of the accused were blood stained, that it was he who led the police to the room where the incident had taken place and opened the room with a key that was in his possession and lastly, the fact that it was he who produced the blood stained machu with which the assault had taken place. The blood on the clothes of the accused and on the weapon tallied with the blood of the deceased and this was one of the additional circumstances against him. The accused had denied the charge and his version was that when the incident took place he had been called there and that the blood on his clothes can be explained because of the fact that he had gone into that room and handled the course and he seeks to place reliance on the fact that it was he who went to the police to lodge a complaint and that he would not have done this had he been the assailant. It is his version that the police had worked on his simple mind by telling him that if he accepts the guilt and makes a confession to that effect that they would see to it that he was let off and that it was under such inducement and deception that he had made this statement before the J.M.F.C. the learned trial Judge rejected the defence, found the accused guilty of the offence under Section 302 IPC. and convicted him Of the charge of murder and sentenced him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life. It is against this conviction and sentence that the present appeal has been directed.