MOHANAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The second accused in S.C. No.1013 of 2017 on the files of the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge-III, Kollam is the appellant in the appeal. He stands convicted and sentenced for offences punishable under Ss. 447, 323, 324, 326 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

(2.) The victim in the case is one Thulasi. The accused and the victim are persons known to each other. On 5/2/2017, while the first accused was walking along the side of a panchayat road with his daughter, the victim who was standing on the side of the said road in a drunken state abused the first accused using filthy language. There occurred then a quarrel between the first accused and the victim on account of the same, and in midst of the quarrel, the first accused slapped on the cheek of the victim. After sometime, the victim picked up quarrel with the second accused also. Later, the victim went to his house.

(3.) The victim was found lying in a pit inside his residential property in the evening hours of 5/2/2017 with injuries on his body and he succumbed to the said injuries on the following day while undergoing treatment at Taluk Hospital, Kottarakara. On receiving information from the Hospital, Pooyappally police registered a crime and the investigation revealed that the death of the victim was caused by the accused. It is seen that inasmuch as the victim and the appellant belong to Scheduled Castes and the first accused does not belong to a Scheduled Caste, split final reports were filed, one before the Jurisdictional Magistrate against the appellant alleging commission of the offences punishable under Ss. 120B, 447, 323, 324, 326, 302 read with Sec. 34 IPC and another before the Special Court for Trial of Cases for offences punishable under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against the first accused alleging commission of the offences referred to above as also offences punishable under the said Statute.