URLIKIA MEDINA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant has been convicted under Section 302, Indian Penal Code and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The prosecution case is that on November 7th 1960 the accused with his cousin (P. W. 1) was harvesting Kusala crop from a piece of land. The deceased protested stating that the crop had been grown by him and the accused was not entitled to remove the same. There were some altercations by exchange of words. All of a sudden the accused picked up a lathi and dealt blows on the head, neck and waist of the deceased, and the deceased fell on fire-woods which were burning there and met with instantaneous death.

(2.) THE accused in his statement Under Section 342, Cri. P. C. admitted that he was cutting Kusala crop and that the deceased prohibited him from removing crops claiming the land to be his and that there was mutual exchange of words; but he denied to have assaulted the deceased with a stick. He stated that the deceased was drunk, he pushed him and the deceased fell on the stone and then on the fire where there were three heavy logs kept raised at their burning ends. On account of the fall there was fracture on the head of the deceased who died instantaneously.

(3.) THE doctor P. W. 3 stated that he found a lacerated wound 1 1/4" x 1/2" bone deep on the left side of the head 1/2" to the back and above the upper border of the ear. The tissues around the wound congested and stained. The direction was from front to backwards and downwards. He also found a linear scratch 1 1/2" long on the left side of the neck 2 1/2" below the ear. There was also a brown coloured area 3" x 3" on the right side of the back in the lower half. On dissection he found a fracture of both parietal bones of the entire thickness, the line of fracture started from the line of joining of the mastoid portion of the left temporal bone and the parietal bone going to right side and ending at a point 1" away from the joining line of squamous portion of the right temporal and parietal bones. He also found the 3rd, 4th and the 5th ribs of the left side fractured on posterior halves into two pieces each. All these injuries are ante-mortem. Death was due to shock and haemorrhage due to injuries to the head and chest. The injuries on the head and chest could independently cause death immediately on the infliction of the injuries within a minute or two. It is clear that death was caused by the assault. The suggestion of the defence that death was due to fall on the stone and the logs is not supported by the prosecution evidence.