PUBLIC PROSECUTOR Vs. KORAMUTLA NARASIGADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the Crown against the acquittal by the Sessions Judge of Cuddappa of the three accused on a charge of murder, the Sessions Judge having found them guilty under Section 326 only.

(2.) The events which brought about the killing of the deceased are simple. The brinjals of P.W. 2 were rooted up and his plough stolen. He made a complaint about this, and the ccused, rightly or wrongly, thought that P.W. 2 had thrown suspicion on them. On his way home on the day of offence while he was passing the house of the accused, they abused him. He consulted some of his castemen about this abuse, and decided to refer the matter to the elders of the caste. The accused apparently heard what was going on and knew of the decision. As P.W. 2 passed their house again on his way to the house of the elders, the three accused rushed out of the house and attacked him, beating him severely with sticks. The deceased sister, hearing her brother's cries, came to the scene and asked the accused why they were beating her brother. They then turned from him and attacked her, each delivering a blow on her head with considerable force with the sticks they held in their hands. One of these blows fractured her skull very extensively, causing a piece of bone to be pressed downwards on the brain. This led to death by compression of the brain.

(3.) The learned Sessions Judge had no doubts at all about the truth of the prosecution case, nor have we. In considering the question as to what offence was actually committed by the accused, the learned Sessions Judge says: I do not consider that there was any definite intention by selecting the head for attack to cause her injuries of a particular kind. As against Nagi (the deceased) the accused had no motive whatsoever, whatever their feeling against Rosigadu (P.W. 2) might have been. It was therefore a case of merely voluntarily causing bodily injury which unfortunately proved to be fatal.