IN RE: SAMANATHU KUSUNUGADU Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Reference from the learned Sessions Judge of Ganjam submitting the records in Sessions Case No. 27 of 1924 in which the Jury unanimously found the accused not guilty of offences under Sections 457, 392 and 394 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Judge, considering the verdict perverse, has sent up the case to this Court with a recommendation that the verdict be set aside and the accused convicted.

(2.) The facts are simple. The prosecution case is that on the 1st day of June 1924 at night the accused entered the house of P.W. No. 4 removing a thatti door in order to enter, that after he got into the house P.W. No. 4 s wife roused him being taken on alarm, that P.W. No. 4 discovered the accused in the house and cried out, that the accused ran away and P.W. No. 4 pursued him and caught him. The accused then struck P.W. No. 4 on the head with an iron instrument and also with P.W. No. 4 s own chembu which he had carried away. Four people came up on hearing P.W. No. 4 s alarm P.W. Nos. 5, 6, 7 and ****** and resisted P.W. No. 4 in securing the accused and he was then handed over to the village Munsif.

(3.) The cross-examination of these witnesses does not discover any evidence of enmity between the witnesses and the accused or any other reason why these witnesses should get up a false case against him. The accused simply pleaded that the witnesses were all animated by enmity instigated by his sister s son. Of this there is no evidence. We can see no reason why P. Ws. Nos. 4 to 8 should not be believed and we are satisfied that the accused was caught red-handed having committed house-breaking in the house of P.W. No. 4 and abstracted from it a chembu and when P.W. No. 4 attempted to catch him and recover his property the accused in order to the carrying away of this property, caused hurt to P.W. No. 4. We, therefore, find that the accused committed offences under Sections 457, 392 and 394, Indian Penal Code with which he is charged.