KAMSALA MUNEYYA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The two appellants have been convicted of the murder of Pedda Konda Reddi, a member of the Cuddappah District Board, at about 7 P.M. on 11 October 1935, at a spot just east of Cuddappah town and within a short distance of the Kondayapalli Kunta, the Government Hospital, the High School, and the Cuddappah-Rachinnayapalli Road. P.W. 2 was with Pedda Konda Reddi when the murder was committed. On that day he had come to Cuddappah to make some purchases and on his way home called at the house of a friend of his, Mr. C.L. Narasimha Reddi, who was a District Board member, and there met the deceased. They remained at the house of Narasimha Reddi until about 6 P.M. and then left together for Pakirpalli which is about 1? miles from Cuddappah and is the village of Pedda Konda Reddi. The way to Pakirpalli lies along a footpath through Kondayapalli Kunta. Just as they were approaching the spot where the tank bund meets the footpath, they met two men, one of whom was dressed in the ordinary garb of a Hindu and the other in the tarbush and pyjamas of a Mahomedan. P.W. 2 was then about four yards behind the deceased. Just as these two men passed Pedda Konda Reddi, they turned and attacked him with billhooks and hacked him mercilessly to death. The witness remonstrated but the man in Mahomedan costume advanced to attack him. He pleaded for his life and when the man in Mahomedan dress returned to give some final blows to the deceased, the witness availed himself of the opportunity to run away. Some voices from a well near by in the bed of the tank incited the assailants to attack this witness also; but he ran in the direction of the town, and before his pursuers could catch him, others called out enquiring what had happened; and so his pursuers turned back before he actually reached the town. Panic-stricken, the witness ran towards the hospital, accompanied on the last part of his flight by P.W. 3 who was asking him what had happened. At the hospital he gave out his story to P.W. 3 and to an ayah of the Government Head quarters Hospital (P.W. 4). Soon afterwards he made a formal complaint, Ex. B, to the police.

(2.) In his complaint he described one of the assailants of the deceased as wearing trousers with a Mahomedan cap, of dark complexion, of quick movements, and of medium size. Of the other man he had nothing to say except that he was wearing a cloth. Two days later, on 13th October, this witness was examined under Section 164, Criminal P.C., by the local Sub- Magistrate to whom he gave a very detailed statement (Ex. C) of what had occurred; and that statement agrees very closely with his evidence in the Sessions Court. Both in Ex. B and in Ex. C he said that he could identify the two persons who attacked the deceased and threatened him, adding in Ex. C that it was a full moon night. The calendar shows that the 11 was the day before the full moon and so, unless there were any clouds at the time when the offence was committed, there was a considerable amount of moonlight. There can be no doubt at all that P.W. 2 was an. eye-witness of the murder, and in this Court the presence of P.W. 2 at the scene of offence when the murder was committed has not been disputed. He fled panic stricken to the town from the tank bund, although an elderly and corpulent man, and P. Ws. 3 and 4 who saw him immediately afterwards speak to his state of mind when they first saw him. Immediately afterwards he gave an outline of the attack to the police.

(3.) It was not known for many days who the murderers of Pedda Konda Reddi were. Accused 1 was not arrested until the 21 and accused 2 until the 24th. Nothing more than a few circumstantial facts pointing to the complicity of accused 1 came to light. P. Ws. 5 and 6 on the day after the murder had given information to the police, as had P.W. 3. On the 13 the Stationary Sub-Magistrate recorded a number of statements under Section 164, Criminal P.C., and among those examined were P. Ws. 2 to 4. The statement of P.W. 2 (Ex. C) has already been referred to. P.W. 3 deposed that he was coming along the path from Pakirpalli to Cuddappah and saw accused 1 to the north of the footpath wearing white pyjamas, a white shirt and a tarbush. He said that he was unable to identify him at once because he was in Muslim dress. He said to him "who are you" and accused 1 replied: "What is it?" Then P.W. 3 knew from his voice that it was accused 1, and so he asked him what he was doing in Muslim costume, to which accused 1 replied that he had put it on for fun. P.W. 3 also saw four persons at a well 20 yards away, who were presumably the persons referred to by P.W. 2, as having egged on the assailants. P.W. 3 then speaks to the incidents referred to by P.W. 2 after the offence was committed. P.W. 3 at the time when the murder was committed was of course not far away, and he heard the shouts of the deceased and P.W. 2 and saw the latter running back to the town. Apparently from that day onwards search was being made for accused 1 and he was eventually arrested by P.W. 30 on the 21 at the village of Rajampet, which is about 30 miles from Cuddappah. An identification parade was held on the 22nd, at which P.W. 2 pointed out this accused as the man who was wearing Mahomedan costume and had participated in the murder. A search was then made for accused 2, against whom there had been apparently little or no information. He was arrested on the 24 at about 1-30 P.M. in a field on the outskirts of Cuddappah, and produced before P.W. 30, who had been put on special duty in connexion with this case. Accused 2 was at once questioned, and he gave certain information regarding the whereabouts of the clothes worn by accused 1 and the weapons used by him and by accused 1 in committing the murder. Panchayatdars were secured and the party proceeded to the tank, where accused 2 pointed out the place where these articles had been thrown. A search was made there and two billhooks and a tarbush were recovered.