SHAJI ALIAS KARUVAN SHAJI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused has preferred this appeal challenging the judgment dated 14.2.2014 in S.C.No.124 of 2013 on the file of the Court of Sessions, Palakkad by which he was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- with default sentence of 1 year for offences punishable under Section 302 of the India Penal Code (for short the IPC) and to suffer simple imprisonment for 6 months for the offence punishable under Section 324 of the IPC.

(2.) The accused was charged with the crime of having committed murder of his son Prajeesh. His son was only aged 9 years. Prosecution case was that on 7.4.2002 at about 4 pm, the accused tried to stab his wife which was warded of by the daughter in which they suffered injuries. The reason for the attack was that, the accused saw his wife talking with another person. The wife and daughter ran away from the scene. At this time, CW3 and deceased Prajeesh were coming to the house with their goats and the accused caught hold of one of the goats and attempted to slaughter it. Prajeesh rushed towards him to prevent slaughtering of the goat. But the accused slaughtered the goat and then chased Prajeesh who ran away from the scene. Accused ran after him and caught hold of him and stabbed on his left thigh below the buttock with a knife. He succumbed to the injuries.

(3.) Crime was registered based on the statement given by the daughter of the accused. The Circle Inspector of Police conducted investigation into the crime and final report was filed before the Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Mannarkkad. The case was committed to Court of Sessions and numbered as S.C.No.413 of 2004. Since the accused did not turn up and was absconding, the case was registered as L.P.No.12 of 2005. Thereafter, the accused was arrested and produced and the case was renumbered as S.C.No.124 of 2013.