VARGHESE LUKKOSE Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Varghese Lukkose, the accused in Sessions Case No. 2 of 1954 on the file of the Parur Sessions Court has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to be transported for life. Criminal Appeal 108 has been preferred against the conviction and the sentence. The State has filed Criminal Revision Petition 82 of 1954 to enhance the sentence into one of the extreme penalty of law.

(2.) The case against the appellant was that he caused the death of one Iype Varkki by cutting him on the head, neck and other parts of the body with a chopper. The occurrence is alleged to have been taken place at about 7 A.M. on 17.9.1953 in a paddy field belonging to the said Varkki not far away from his house. The appellant used to earn his livelihood by manual labour and he was for long working for the deceased as a farm labourer. For a time he left Varkki's service but rejoined him some two years before the occurrence. On 14.9.1953 he wanted some money from Varkki but that was refused. For two days he did not go for work though Varkki had entrusted him with some work. On the 17th morning he went to Varkki's house and Varkki directed him to attend to some work in his paddy field. He was given a spade and a chopper and he went to the field with those implements. Varkki's filed and the adjoining fields were being ploughed that morning. Not long after the appellant reached the field Varkki also went there. He found the appellant to be attending to some work other than he entrusted him with. He scolded him on account of that and said that if he does not want to do the work assigned to him he had better leave the field. To this the appellant would seem to have replied why he was being threatened. At this time Varkki was proceeding along the bund of his field to the place of ploughing and the appellant rushing towards him with the chopper brought from Varkki's house gave a cut on the right side of Varkki's face. Varkki fell down into the northern paddy field which PW 3 was cultivating as a lessee. The appellant jumped into the field after Varkki and inflicted 5 or 6 cuts on the latter's head and neck with the very same chopper. PW 3 and PW 14 were at that time ploughing that filed and PW 3 raised a hue and cry saying that Varkki was being cut with a chopper. This brought the neighbours to the scene as also Varkki's wife. By the time the neighbours reached the spot where Varkki was lying wounded the appellant escaped with the chopper. He went straight to the house of the deceased and there shut himself up in a room still keeping the chopper in his hand. By threat of force PW 6 managed to secure the chopper. The appellant was still refusing to come out and PW 6 got into the house by making an opening through the roof and forcibly brought him out to the courtyard. He was then bound to a cocoanut tree with a cloth and coir. Varkki's wife (PW 2) and others meanwhile found that Varkki had died and immediately information was sent to the Perumbavoor Police Station. The Police arrived soon after and they first took the appellant into the custody. An inquest was then conducted over the dead body and later it was sent for post mortem examination. After due investigation the Police charge sheeted a case against the appellant for murder. After the preliminary enquiry he was committed to the Sessions Court to stand his trial for murder.

(3.) That Iype Varkki, the husband of PW 2, died on the morning of 17.9.1953 as a result of injuries sustained by him with a sharp deadly instrument admits of no doubt on the evidence in the cases. The post mortem examination showed that he had as many as 6 incised wounds and one gaping wound. These injuries are described as follows in the post mortem certificate:--