UPPARAPALLI TIRUMALA RAO Vs. STATE OF A P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Kowturu Vinay Kumar, Counsel representing the appellant and the learned Additional Public Prosecutor.

(2.) Accused No.l in S.C. No.l 12/93 preferred the present criminal appeal aggrieved by the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge, Khammam convicting him and directing to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 5 years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 months for the offence under Section 325 I.P.C. Though the Appellant/A-1 was convicted under Section 325 I.P.C. and A-2 was convicted under Section 323 I.P.C., inasmuch as A-2 had served the sentence he had not preferred any appeal.

(3.) The accused were charged with the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 I.P.C. and the learned Sessions Judge after recording oral and documentary evidence and findings ultimately arrived at the conclusion that the said charges were not proved, but convicted A-1 under Section 325 and A-2 under Section 323 I.P.C. The case of the prosecution is that the deceased Nageswara Rao and the accused are neighbours and friends. The appellant/ A-l is the brother of A-2. The deceased and the appellant/A-1 worked as Cleaners at Nandyala and returned to Khammam a month ago. On 10-6-1992 the deceased and his brother Sadasiva Rao and the appellant/ A-l went to bazaar, consumed liquor and from there went to Charan Bar and took food and returned to their houses. On the same day, at about 6.30 p.m., the deceased, appellant/A-1 and A-2 went to a cutlet pushing cart located before Dhanalaxmi Automobile shop on the Trunk Road. The accused picked up quarrel with the owner Sajjan demanding seven gupchip, a sort of food item, instead of five for a rupee. The deceased intervened and tried to stop the quarrel on which the appellant/A-1 and A-2 grew wild and asked him not to interfere, upon which the deceased pushed A-2 which resulted his fall on the ground. The appellant/A-1 could not tolerate the act of the deceased on his handicapped elder brother and in a sudden provocation picked up a stick from a stationed tractor belonging to Bejawada Narasimha Rao and beat the deceased on his head. The deceased received bleeding injury and began running away. The appellant/A-1 and A-2 chased him through Sangeethamvari Veedhi, attacked him, fell him on ground and beat him. Boyapati Chittemma and Bathula Srinivas, residents of the locality interfered and the accused left threatening them with dire consequences. Number of persons witnessed the incident and the deceased returned to his house where he told his mother and brother about the details of the offence. The deceased was shifted to Sirisha Nursing Home where one Ktmnoji Bhaskar, a compounder, gave treatment. Thereafter, the deceased came back to his house and slept on a cot- On 11-6-1992 in the early hours, the deceased succumbed to the injuries. Police after coming to know of the same came to the house of PW-1 at about 8 a.m. H.C. 151 recorded the statement of the mother of the deceased and registered it as Crime No. 118/92 under Section 302 I.P.C. and submitted copies of F.I.R. to all the concerned. The C.L Khammam (Rural) who was in charge of Khammam town, took up investigation and held inquest over the body of the deceased before Panchas and seized material objects and recorded the statements of witnesses and sent the body to post-mortem examination to Government Hospital. The Medical Officer who conducted post-mortem opined that the cause of death was due to shock and head injury. The appellant/A-1 and A-2 were arrested on 19-6-1992 at 11 p.m. and were sent to judicial remand. Hence the accused were charged under Section 302 I.P.C. read with Section 34 I.P.C. Inasmuch as the matter is exclusively triable by a Court of Session, the I Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate committed the matter to the Court of Session and the accused pleaded not guilty.