MURUGESAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Criminal Appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and sentence, dated 14. 03. 2001, made in S. C. No. 31 of 2000 on the file of the I Additional Sessions Judge " cum " Chief Judicial magistrate, Salem .

(2.) THE brief facts of the prosecution case are as follows: On 13. 10. 1998, at about 1. 30 p. m, when there was a wordy quarrel between the wife of the accused and the deceased, the deceased said to have attacked the wife of the accused by a "levelling reaper" found at the scene of occurrence and also pulled the saree of the wife of the accused. On seeing this, the accused attacked the deceased by another "leveling reaper", thereby caused injuries to the deceased. Originally on the complaint given by P. W. 1, a case was registered under Section 324 IPC against the appellant/accused, subsequently, due to the death of the injured, the case was altered into one under Section 302 IPC.

(3.) LEARNED Senior Counsel also drew the attention of this court to the findings of the court below, with regard to the same. The court below has held in its judgment at page 103 of the typed set, at para 24, that as per the prosecution case, the appellant/accused attacked P. Ws. 1 and 2 and caused simple injury. At paragraph 22 of the judgment, the trial court has held that there is no previous enmity between the accused and the family members of p. Ws. 1 and 2. In order to establish the guilt of the accused, except the son of the deceased and his family members, no other independent witness was examined. On the other hand, on the side of the appellant/accused, the mason, d. W. 2, an independent witness was examined. As per the evidence of D. W. 2, the "leveling reaper" of the mason was used to attack the deceased, which was taken only from the scene of occurrence by the accused for causing injury, due to sudden provocation. Further, the trial court has found that prior to the occurrence that the deceased Kulanda Gounder had pulled the saree of D. W. 1, the wife of the appellant/accused and that D. W. 1 had also sustained injuries at the hands of the deceased, at the time of occurrence and the same is not in dispute.