VENKATRAYUDU Vs. IN RE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused in this case, one Enumula Venkatrayudu, has been convicted of the murder of his former mistress, by name Doddamma, by stabbing her with a dagger on 12-5-1963 at about 2 P. M. near a place known as 'Burugulakunta Katta', which is at a distance of half a-mile from Kotapalli village, to which both the accused and Doddamma belonged. The accused has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life as the learned Sessions Judge who tried the ca&e, was of opinion that because of the earlier intimacy between the deceased and the accused it was sufficient if the accused was awarded the lesser penalty. According to the prosecution' the motive for the crime was that the deceased who had lost her husband some 15 or 20 years prior to this incident, had fallen into bad ways and had developed illicit intimacy with the accused. After this liaison had gone on for some time, the mother, the brother and the step-son of the deceased took her to task for her improper conduct and advised her not to carry on with the accused. Ultimately, good sense dawned upon the deceased and she promised her mother that she would sever her connection with the accused and apparently she did so. The accused, however, went on pestering her with his unwelcome attentions and on several occasions solicited her for sexual intercourse She, however, resisted his overtures and even reported the matter to het brother and mot her. It would appear that her brother (P.W.8) sent for the accused and told him not to trouble his sister and the accused promised to leave her alone. He did not, however, keep his promise and on the day of the occurrence i. e. 12-5-1963, he attempted to have by threats and force what he had failed to get by persuasion, and that is how he came to kill the unfortunate woman, when she refused to yield to him.

(2.) As to what happened on the day of the occurrence, is spoken to by the sole eye~witness. P. W.1, a boy of 15. and is corroborated by the evidence of P Ws. 2, 4, and 5, who happened to be in the vicinity of the scene of the crime. On the morning of 12-5-1963, P. Ws.1 and 2, who are both aged about 15, went from their village to Kotapalli, taking their sheep to Burugukunta Katta for grazing them. While they were there, a little before noon, the deceased Doddamma also carec there bringing her mother's sheep. Her mother (P. W. 6) was laid up with fevver and so the deceased took the sheep for grazing At that time P. W. 4, who has a field near Burgulakunta Katta, was having the paddy crop on the field harvested and had engaged P. W. 5 and some others to help him in cutting the crop. At about noon P. Ws. 1, 2 and the deceased too'k their sheep to a well at that Katta, and after drinking water, the sheep were grazing near the well, A little later the sheep of P. W. 2 strayed into another Katta and so P. W. 2 went after them. As it was very hot then, the deceased went to a nearby field and sat under the shade of a Kanuga tree, and P. W. 1 also joined him. At that time P. W. 2 was about 50 yards away from that Kanuga tree and P. Ws. 4, 5 and the others who were cutting the crop in P. W. 4.'s field, were about 35 yards away. At about 2 P. M , while the deceased and P. W. 1 were sitting under the shade of the Kanuga tree and chatting, the accused suddenly appeared on the scene and asked the deceased peremptorily whether she would go with him or not. He used the abusive words. The deceased replied in a defiant manner by saying. Thereupon the accused whipped out a dagger from his waist and rushed at tht deceased with a view to stab her. The deceased caught hold of the dagger with her left hand and tried to snatrh it. The accused pulled out the dagger from her hand and as she raised her left hand and put it across her face, stabbed har below the left shoulder. It was a mortal blow. On receipt of the injury the deceased gave a shriek, fell down and died on the spot. The accused then ran away with the dagger towards the hill known as 'Vuragutta'. P. W. 1 told P. W. 2 that the accused had stabbed the deceased and then the two, as well as P. Ws. 4 and 5, went up to the Kanuga tree and saw the woman lying dead in a pool of blood.

(3.) Thereafter P. Ws. 1 and 2 ran to the village and told P. W. 7, the step-son of the deceased, and also P. W. 6, the mother of the deceased, that the accused, had stabbed the deceased with a dagger and that the body was lying under the Kanuga tree near Burugulakunta Katta. Then P. W. 7 went to Malameedapalli to report the matter to the Village Munsif; but as he was not there and had gone to another village known as Karnamvallapalli, P.W. 7 contacted him there at about 4-30 P. M. and gave a report which is marked as Ex. P-2. After recording Ex. P-2, the village Munsif (P. W. 9) went to the scene of the occurrence and there saw the deceased lying dead with injuries on her person. He also saw P. W. 2, 4 and 5 there and questioned them. P. W. 1 told the Village Munsif straight away that he had seen the accused stabbing Doddamma. P. Ws. 2, 4 and 5 informed the Village Munsif that they had seen the accused running away after the commission of the crime, P. W, 9 then prepared his reports and lent one of them along with Ex. P-2 to the police station at Gandlapenta. The Sub-Inspector, P.W. 13 received the report at 9 P. M. on the same night and proceeded to Kotapalli forthwith. He reached there in the course of the night and held inquest on the next day between 8 A. M. and 11-15 A, M. He examined a number of withnesses including P. Ws. 1, 2, 4 and 5 at the inquest.