PEYYALA YESUBABU Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants herein were A-1 and A-2 in Sessions Case No. 313 of 1998, which was decided by the IV Additional Sessions Judge, Kakinada. They were tried for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34, IPC. On evidence the learned Judge held that the offence against both the accused was proved and, therefore, both of them were convicted and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/- and in default to suffer S.I. for six months. Aggrieved by the aforesaid order of conviction and sentence, the accused-appellants herein have filed the present appeal.

(2.) The gravamen of the charge against the accused-appellants herein was that on 3-8-1998 at about 3.00 a.m. in the sugarcane garden near F. K. Palem Centre, the accused did commit the murder of one Police Constable named Eelugubanti Vara Prasad, attached to Pithapuram Police Station, by catching hold of his neck and pushing him down into Jeebudoddi Irrigation drain canal and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34, IPC.

(3.) The prosecution case can briefly be narrated as follows: That A-1 is a resident of Radhalapeta, Pithapuram and is a rickshaw puller. A-2 was residing at the house of his mother-in-law in Virava village and was doing cooly work. It is the further case of the prosecution that A-1 and A-2 on the date of the incident were in search of illicit liquor. The deceased was on patrolling duty. He accosted them and asked them about their presence at the odd hour and there took place a quarrel between the accused on one hand and the deceased on the other hand. The deceased being the Police Constable told the accused to accompany him to the Police Station. Then both of them refused to do so. There was a quarrel and free fight between A-2 and the deceased. A-2 alleged to have throttled the deceased and pushed him into the channel (canal). A-1 ran away from the scene of offence.