BALAKRISHNA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal & the reference for confirmation arise out of the sentence of death passed by the Sessions Judge of Trivandrum on the appellant Balakrishnan for having committed the murder of one Joseph Vaidyan on 14-8-58 at about 8 P. M.

(2.) The deceased Joseph Vaidyan alias Kuttan Vaidyan, a member of the Aryanad Panchayat, and the second accused Narayana Pillai were at logger heads for some time past due to civil and criminal litigation between them. At about 5 P. M. on 14-8-58 Joseph Vaidyan went to the shop of Pw. 2 Anandan and sitting on the bench placed in front of the shop began to chew betal. At about 5-30 P. M. the second accused, Narayana Pillai also took his seat on the same bench & began to talk ill of the administration of the Aryanad Panchayat, and even went to the extent of saying that it has become necessary for them to conduct a Bhagavan Mackroni Kathaprasangam to tone up the Panchayat administration. At about 7 P. M. the first accused arrived and asked the deceased to get him a chew. When the deceased expressed his inability the first accuseds brother Lakshmanan who was present in the shop got chewing materials for his brother. The second accused gave his knife to the first accused for splitting arecanuts for the chew. The first accused cracked the nut and kept the knife with him without returning. After a while the first accused invited the deceased to go out with him from the shop. Before that he whispered something into the second accuseds ear and the second accused shook his head as if in assent. The first accused got out, leading the deceased to a distance of about ten feet westwards, and then suddenly stabbed him on the right side of the abdomen with the knife the second accused had given him earlier.

(3.) As soon as Joseph Vaidyan was injured, the second accused went near him and laying him on the ground rendered him first aid. The injured was then removed to the verandah of the shop of Pw. 2 and promising to come back with a car to remove the injured to the hospital, the second accused left the place, and never returned. The injured Vaidyan succumbed to the stab wound on the spot. Pw. 1, the brother of the deceased, was informed first and he then lodged the first information with the Kattakada police. Pw. 13 Circle Inspector of Police investigated the case and charged the first accused under S.302 of the Indian Penal Code and the second accused under S.302 read with S.34 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Sessions Judge acquitted the second accused, and convicted the first accused as mentioned above.