BANDELA NAGARAJU Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the six accused in S.C. No. 29/1980 on the file of the learned Sessions Judge, Nellore are the appellants. They are found guilty under Section 148 I.P.C. and each of them is sentenced to undergo two years rigorous imprisonment. They are also convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C. and each of them is sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. A-1 is further convicted under Section 324, I.P.C. and sentenced to suffer one year rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) The prosecution case is as follows. All the six accused and the material witnesses in the case are the residents of Nellore town. One Ingilala Suresh Kumar, hereinafter referred to as the deceased, is a resident of Rayapu Malawada, Nellore town and he was working as an employee in Radha-Madhav theatre. P.W. 3 and one Chitti Babu are his brothers. There have been misunderstandings between the accused on one hand and the deceased and his brothers on the other. About one and half years prior to the occurrence, one Navakoti Sukumar, an associate of A-1 was murdered and Chitti Babu, the brother of the deceased and the deceased figured as accused, but the case ended in acquittal. About four years ago, A-1, A-4 and Sukumar, the deceased in the other case filed a case against the deceased in this case and that case also ended in acquittal. One year prior to the present occurrence, A-2 stabbed P.W. 3 and in that connection, a case was filed in the court of the Second Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Nellore and the same is pending trial. Because of the acquittal of the deceased in the other two cases, the accused bore grudge against him and they were waiting for an opportunity to do away with the deceased.

(3.) One Gangapatnam Dayakar was working as a clerk under a Kerala Arrack contractor in the depot situated to the east of Atmakur bus stand. P.W. 1, at the relevant time, was working as a cooly at the Railway Goods shed and the lorry stand and he was a friend of the deceased. Both of them used to visit the arrack shop of Dayakar to consume arrack. On 16-12-1979 at about 11-30 p.m. the deceased and P.W. 1 went to the arrack shop and sat on a bench and asked Dayakar to serve arrack. Just then A-1 to A-6, having formed themselves into an unlawful assembly, entered the arrack shop. A-1 was armed with an axe and A-2 to A-6 were armed with knives and iron rods. Having entered their shop, A-1 shouted saying that the deceased cannot escape the death. So saying, he hacked the deceased with the axe on his chin. The deceased fell down from the bench. Thereafter A-2 to A-6 stabbed the deceased and also beat him indiscriminately all over the body with knives and iron rods. The deceased died on the spot. P.W. 2 who is a licensed cooly of the Road Transport Corporation at Atmakur bus stand also proceeded to the shop of Dayakar to consume arrack. On the way he stooped for urination and when he got up, the he saw the accused entering the arrack shop. Then he went near the shop and peeped through a hole in the that on the southern side of the arrack shop and witnessed the occurrence. Thus P.Ws. 1 and 2 and Dayakar witnessed the occurrence. As the accused were stabbing the deceased, P.W. 1 questioned the accused about their highhanded act and A-1 took a knife from one of his associates and stabbed P.W. 1 with the knife on the left wrist of P.W. 1. Thereafter, the accused ran away. Seeing the occurrence, Dayakar in whose shop the deceased was stabbed to death stayed for some time and then went to No. 2 Town police station and presented a report Ex. P-9 to the Head Constable P.W. 9 at about 1 a.m. P.W. 9 registered the crime and issued express F.I.Rs. The Inspector of Police, City Crime Station, Nellore P.W. 11 received the F.I.R. and took up the investigation. On 17-12-1979 at about 7 a.m. P.W. 11 inspected the scene of offence, seized the bloodstained earth from the place of occurrence and held the inquest. During the inquest, he examined P.Ws. 1 to 3 and Dayakar. The dead body was sent for post-mortem examination. P.W. 6 conducted post-mortem examination and he found as many as thirty injuries. Out of them, four are lacerated injuries and two are contusions and the rest are all incised injuries. On internal examination, the Doctor found incised injuries on the heart and on the lungs. He also found that the trachea was cut and other vital organs were also injured. He opined that the injuries to the heart as well as the injuries to the other vital organs were necessarily fatal and they could have been caused by a sharp edged weapon like a knife, dagger, spear or an axe and some of the injuries could have been caused by an iron rod. Subsequently, the accused were arrested and after completion of the investigation, the charge-sheet was laid.