VARKEY JOSEPH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant in this case, one Varkey Joseph, a school boy of 16 years of age, has been convicted by the learned Sessions Judge of Alleppey for an offence Under Section 302 IPC and has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life. The prosecution case may be briefly summarised as follows :

(2.) THE accused and deceased Kuttappan were students in the VI standard of the Government Higher Secondary School at Shertallai. Before the Chrismas holidays in 1958 there was a quarrel between them in the course of their games and they had ill feeling on account of that incident. On 3 1 1959 at about 7 p. m. the accused and the deceased met on the road near the Shertallai Bhagavathi temple and they came to blows, when the on lookers including Pws. 9 and 10 separated them. The accused was taken south along the road and sent west and the deceased was sent north along the road. Sometime after, at about 8 p. m. , the deceased came to the open space in front of the Altnara in front of the Bhagavathi temple and sat down there a few feet from the Altnara. Then the accused approached him from behind and with a granite stone, M. O. 1, hit him on his right temple near the ear. The deceased fell forward on his face. When Pws. 3, 11 and some others came near him, the deceased wanted water and somebody gave him some soda, on drinking which he vomitted. Thereafter Pws. 3, 11 and the others removed him to a nearby shop. His parents were informed and later he was removed to the Police Station about 1 1/2) furlongs from the place of occurrence. There he gave Ext. P9, the first information report, at 9 45 p. m. the same night. He was then sent to the Government Hospital at Shertallai. The nurse on night duty felt that the injury was minor and informed the doctor accordingly. Consequently the doctor examined him only on the next day at 8 a. m. and after observation for some time he suspected intra cranial haemorrhage and hence the deceased was sent to the District Hospital, Alleppey, for better treatment. While undergoing treatment there Kuttappan died at 5-30 a. m. on 5-1-1959. The fact of his death was intimated to the police. In pursuance of that information, the Circle Inspector, Pw. 19, took up investigation. Pw. 20 conducted the autopsy and prepared the postmortem certificate, a duplicate of which is Ext. P 13. The accused was arrested at 6 30 p. m. on 5 1 1959 at his residence. Subsequently the charge sheet was filed and after committal by the Sub Divisional Magistrate's Court, Alleppey the case came up before the learned Sessions Judge, Alleppey.

(3.) THE accused gave a statement, Ext. P 14, before the committal court, substantially admitting the prosecution case. However, his case in the statement was that he did not hit the deceased directly with a stone but only threw a stone at him. According to him the deceased and three other children beat him, when Pw. 9 intervened and parted them. He was followed by the deceased and the other boys and was beaten again. Then he threw a stone at the deceased and he definitely denied that he hit the deceased on his forehead. In his statement Under Section 342 Criminal Procedure Code before the Sessions Court he had a different version of the occurrence. He would say feat he and Kuttappan grappled each other and to the scuffle Kuttappan fell on the stone of the Althara and thereby might have sustained, the injury, Towards the close of this statement he said that Ext. P 14 statement was given in the committal court by him as directed by the police.