BARKU KRISHNA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question before the Court in this appeal directed against the judgment and order passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge Surat on April 29 1970 in Sessions Case No. 30 of 1970 is whether the appellant has been rightly convicted for an offence punishable under sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code on the charge of having committed murder by intentionally causing the death of his elder brother Hura Krishna on November 14 1969 at about 4 p.m.

(2.) . The appellant had inter alia pleaded the defence of insanity and claimed the benefit of sec. 84 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Additional Sessions Judge came to the conclusion that the appellant had failed to discharge the burden of proving the exception embodied in sec. 84 of the Indian Penal Code by showing that he was insane at the material time. The learned Judge in this view of the matter rejected the plea. Having accepted the prosecution evidence mainly consisting of three eye witnesses the learned Judge came to the conclusion that the prosecution had established that the appellant was guilty of the offence of murder with which he was charged and convicted him under sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Judge sentenced him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life. The convict Barku Krishna who will in the course of this judgment be referred to as the accused has thereupon approached this Court by way of the present appeal.

(3.) The learned counsel for the appellant accused has made the following four submissions in support of the appeal:-