PUBLIC PROSECUTOR Vs. BUDIPITI DEVASIKAMANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused in this case was charged before the learned Agency Sessions Judge, East Godavari, that he, on the 19 of June, 1926, committed mischief by setting fire to the thatched building of the Board Elementary School at Gurtedu, with intent to destroy the same, an offence punishable under Section 436 of the Indian Penal Code. The prosecution case is that the accused took a torch from the kitchen, ran to the building, put it to the thatch and then threw it on the roof of the kitchen and ran away. The thatch caught fire and the school building was completely destroyed. The learned Sessions Judge found that the accused set fire to the school building but acquitted him on the ground that he was insane at the time when he did it and was therefore incapable of forming the intention or of having the knowledge which forms an essential ingredient of the offence. Against this acquittal the Crown has presented this appeal.

(2.) The accused is a smoker of ganja. There is evidence to show that, as a result of this vicious habit, he used to threaten to beat his father and children, and used to beat his wife and run away into the forest; he would not take his food properly and when he was given it he would throw it away. The evidence also shows that he used to tear his cloth and wander about in the forest. He was kept under observation in the Central Tail at Rajahmundry for a fortnight. The Medical Officer who examined him found no reason to pronounce him insane at that time.

(3.) The learned Public Prosecutor contends that the plea of insanity is not borne out by these facts, that at the most the evidence would only show that the accused used to get voluntarily intoxicated by smoking ganja off and on and that voluntary intoxication is no defence to a criminal act.