BISALA APPARAO ALIAS RAGHU Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition, in revision, against the appellate judgment of the Sessions Judge of Berhampur; maintaining the conviction of the Petitioner under Section 304 -A I.P.C. and the sentence of three months rigorous imprisonment passed by a First Class Magistrate of Parlakhimedi.

(2.) ON the 6th August 1954 the Petitioner was driving motor bus No. MDV -2614, from Varanasi to Parlakhimedi. He reached Parlakhimedi bus stand in due course and while proceeding to the Police Station from the stand he took a short cut, through a lane known as Gundichabadi lane, and there he ran over a woman who was walking on the lane ahead of the bus and killed her outright. An Assistant Sub -Inspector of Police (P. W. 5) on leave who travelled in that bus on the same day and was sitting in the front seat by the side of the Petitioner immediately reported the incident at Parlakhimedi Police Station vide Ext. 3. The time of occurrence was given as 11 A.M. After holding the post -mortem examination on the corpse and after inspection of the bus and the place of the accident by the Motor Vehicle Inspector (P. W. 4) Sri B.C. Mukherji, the Police completed the investigation and submitted charge -sheet.

(3.) THE two lower courts, however, have rejected the plea of the Petitioner and held that the death of the woman was caused by the rashness and negligence of the Petitioner. As regards the circumstances under which the accident took place, they relied mainly on the evidence of the Assistant Sub -Inspector of Police (P.W.5). As a court of revision, I see no reason to disturb their finding on this point. Some of the other eye -witnesses have however given a slightly different version but that has not been accepted by the two courts of fact.