(1.) THE petitioner herein was tried in C.C. No. 39 of 2000 by I Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Warangal for the offence punishable under Section 304-A IPC. During the course of trial, PWs.1 to 7 were examined and Exs.P1 to P5 were marked on behalf of the prosecution. DW1 was examined and no documents were marked on behalf of the accused. Having analysed the oral and documentary evidence, the trial Court, by its judgment dated 31.01.2003, came to the conclusion that the petitioner is guilty of the charged offence, and accordingly, convicted and sentenced her to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of two years. Questioning the judgment, the petitioner-accused filed Crl.A.No. 29 of 2003, and the learned Sessions Judge, Warangal, while concurring with the findings arrived at by the trial Court, dismissed the appeal and sentenced her to pay fine of Rs.5000/- and also compensation of Rs.75,000/- to PW1 - wife of the deceased, instead of sentence of imprisonment. Challenging the judgment dated 17.03.2004, the petitioner has preferred the present Criminal Appeal.
(2.) THE case of the prosecution in brief is that on 07.09.1997, at about 09.30 p.m., when the deceased-Guruvaiah, and his wife - PW1, were coming from the agricultural field, her husband was bitten by a snake, and he was brought to MGM Hospital, Warangal. As he was not treated properly and injection was not administered to him at the appropriate time, he died. On receipt of a complaint from PW1, the Inspector of Police registered a case in Cr. No.218 of 1999 against the petitioner-accused and after completion of investigation, charge sheet was filed.
(3.) IN the light of the rival contentions put forth by both the learned counsel, this Court has carefully analysed the entire material placed on record. PW1, who is the wife of the deceased, deposed in her evidence that when she along with her husband was returning from agriculture field, he was bitten by a snake, and immediately, she rushed him to M.G.M. hospital for treatment, where one lady Doctor - Sharada informed her that the medicine for snakebite was not available in hospital and prescribed an anti-venom injection and asked her to get it from any nearby medical shop. Though she tried to secure the medicine, she could not get it as it was not available in the medical shop, as such, she returned to the hospital and informed the Doctor about its non-availability. IN the meantime, the petitioner-Staff Nurse informed the Doctor that the medicine is available in the hospital, however PW1's husband died. IN fact, in chief- examination, she stated that her husband died due to the negligent act of the Doctor -Sharada. The evidence of PW2, who is none other than the brother of the deceased, is also on similar lines.