EMPEROR Vs. KOMMOJU BRAHMAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under Section 374, Criminal P.C., by the Agency Sessions Judge of Koraput, in the case of one Kommoju Brahman, aged 35, Viswa Brahmin, by caste, a goldsmith by occupation, of village Sovai, Taluk Pottanghi, within the jurisdiction of Nandapur police station in Koraput, who has been convicted under Section 302, I.P.C., and sentenced to death for having killed a woman named Kali Moni, aged 20, who belonged to the Payako caste, at about 3 A.M. on 24 April 1939. There is also an appeal by the accused against his conviction and sentence. Kali Moni was a kept woman of the accused. The accused and the deceased used to live in a verandah of Morchomalia Lokhon (P.W. 9), an uncle of the deceased woman.

(2.) The verandah was enclosed by a matting, and the accused and the deceased woman used to sleep therein. There they lived together for three years and a child was born to them about six months before the date of the occurrence. P.W. 9 and his wife Hiramani (P.W. 10) lived inside the house, and the door of their room communicated directly with the verandah in which the accused and the deceased slept. P.Ws. 9 and 10, the accused and the deceased, as well as their child went to sleep on the night of 23 April 1939. Early in the morning at about 3 A.M., P.Ws. 9 and 10 were both awakened from sleep by hearing of the voice of the deceased- -"Father ! I am dying." P.W. 9 lit a lamp, opened the door, and as he attempted to come put he found the accused standing with a bloodstained knife in his hand and the body of the deceased at his feet with a number of stab wounds from which blood was gushing out.

(3.) The accused threatened P.W. 9 to stab him also, whereupon P.W. 10 pulled him back into the room and the door of the room was shut. P.W. 9 raised an outcry from inside the room calling out loudly by names P.Ws. 11, 12, 13 and 14. Kichi Syamo and Pujari Raghunath (P.Ws. 11 and 12), whose houses are at a distance of 2 and 10 steps, respectively, from the house of P.W. 9, were the first to respond to the cries of P.W. 9. They came out of their houses and saw the accused proceeding towards the direction of Nandapur police station.