ANIL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appealing accused stands convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 5000/-, with a default sentence of imprisonment for a further period of six months, not termed as to be rigorous, and, hence, simple, on a count under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Adv. R. Muraleekrishnan appearing for the appellant, at State expense, argued that the accused was entitled to be acquitted, at least, on benefit of doubt; and, in any view of the matter, conviction and sentence are liable to be altered tapering the count to be a lesser one. Sri K.K. Rajeev, the authorised learned Public Prosecutor argued that the conviction and sentence be sustained as they were inexcusable on the material legal evidence on record. The gist of the prosecution case is that in the incident that occurred at about 4.30 p.m. on 7.7.2006, in a tribal settlement colony, Gopi died at the hands of the accused in the courtyard of a shed owned by that victim, wherein he and the accused were staying together, while working as coolie labourers. The allegation is that, on that evening, while the accused and the victim were alone in that shed, they quarrelled regarding sharing of wages and, on account of that, the victim was repeatedly beaten by the accused, resulting in fatal injuries to the victim's head. Going by Ext. P4 wound certificate, the victim was admitted to the Community Health Centre, Adimali, at about 10.15 p.m. on that day itself and he expired at about 10 o'clock the next morning.

(2.) Ext. P4 wound certificate records three basic injuries: a 5 centimetre bone deep lacerated injury on the left mastoid region; a lacerated injury about 6-7 centimetre, obliquely placed on the anterior aspect of the left leg; and, a 3-4 centimetre lacerated injury, anteriorly below the left knee. Multiple contusions on the back of the chest are put together in the wound certificate. When all those contusions are enumerated vividly, the postmortem description gets enlarged to be one noting 15 injuries. Of all those injuries, the lacerated injury to the left mastoid region was treated as sufficient to cause the death. Ext. P3 postmortem certificate corroborates the evidence of PW 5, who conducted postmortem. The testimony of that forensic surgeon and the contents of the postmortem certificate go to show that the death was as a result of the injuries caused to the head and the resultant edema, and, other factors resulting from that injury. PW 5 also opined that a blow with MO 1 could cause injury No. 1 and that the said injury is sufficient to cause death. That is decisive to classify the act attributed to the accused, even if it were one amounting to an offence, on its quality and degree, to fix criminal liability as referable to the appropriate penal provision.

(3.) MO 1 is a blunt weapon. It is a wooden piece, slightly curved at one end, with a long flat face. That is a tool used for setting the level of mud and hardening muddy floors by hitting on the spread mud and a tool or instrument usually available in rural homes with such beaten floors.