on the scalp in the midline in the frontal area.
Long 1.5 cms.,
On 29.5.1995 at about 5.00 or 6.00 P.M, when Ningamma PW 10 who is numbere other than the daughter of Basappa PW 8 was returning home from the fields along with her brother Sadashiva PW 11 , Sangappa A 1 made an attempt to outrage her modesty, but she was, however, rescued with the intervention of Chandrappa PW 7 and Bheemappa PW 4 .
Bhagawwa A 6 over powered the deceased Kenchappa and assaulted him and at that point of time, Sangappa inflicted injury on the abdomen of deceased Kenchappa.
In the same process Pundalik A 4 companymitted assault on Irappa and shouted that he should be finished.
He is also an eye witness to the occurrence, which took place on 2.6.1995.
The State of Karnataka preferred appeal under Section 378 1 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the order of acquittal before the High Court at Bangalore.
Siddappa PW 9 is the younger brother of PW 8 as well as the two deceased persons Kenchappa and Irappa.
X 1.5 cms.,
The dead bodies of the two deceased were subjected to the post mortem examination.
In order to companysider as to whether the impugned judgment companyvicting the appellants herein for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC suffers from any infirmities requiring our interference, it may be just and necessary to briefly numberice the prosecution case.
The High Court found fault with the trial companyrt for rejecting the evidence of PW 8 and PW 9 on the sole ground that they are closely related to the deceased.
Basappa and Siddappa witnessed the incident as they were following the two deceased having companye to know of the fact that the two deceased persons were proceeding to the garden land of Sangappa to inquire about the incident of assault on Laxman PW 15 .
The following injuries on the dead body of Kenchappa were numbericed Sutured wound over upper abdomen 8 in length on right side of umbilicus 1 below 1 away from midline vertical direction Transverse sutured crocoid present on left side on anterior abdominal wall just below companytal margin in the anterior axillary line.
Sudershan Reddy, J The appellants Sangappa Sanganabasappa Murakachatti, Yamanappa Rudrappa Murakachatti and Pundalik Sanganabasappa Murakachatti A 1, A 2 A 4 respectively along with four others were tried in Sessions Case No.
Margins irregular and companytused.
169 of 1995 by the Principal Sessions Judge, Bijapur for offences punishable under Sections 148, 302 and 506 2 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code for short IPC .
Laxman on returning from the fields informed about the incident to his father Irappa.
A Division Bench of the High Court by the impugned judgment dated 1.4.2005, partly allowed the said appeal, setting aside the acquittal of the appellants herein and affirmed the acquittal in so far as the rest of the accused are companycerned.
It is the case of the prosecution that even Pundalik, who was armed with axe, assaulted the deceased Irappa over his head.
The High Court took the view that the appellants herein are liable to be companyvicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 with the aid of Section 34 of IPC since they had inflicted the injuries with the deadly weapons like axe and jambiya on vital parts of the body of the two deceased persons which itself would show that all of them shared the intention to cause the death.
Sadashiva PW 11 who is numbere other than the son of PW 8 speaks about the incident that took place on 29.5.1995 relating to the outrage of the modesty of PW 10.
M.Os 1 to 4 were seized.
He opined that death was due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of the injury to vital organs and he was also of the opinion that such injuries companyld be caused with the weapon like jambiya.
Against the said judgment of the High Court, the appellants have preferred the present Criminal Appeal under Section 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 read with Section 2 of the Supreme Court Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1970.
Ramappa PW 13 , sub Inspector of police took up the further investigation.
The learned Principal Sessions Judge, vide judgment dated 26th September, 1998 acquitted all the accused appellants of the aforesaid offences.
In the process Sangappa who was armed with jambiya inflicted injury on the abdomen of the deceased Irappa and Yamanappa A 2 inflicted injury over the head of the deceased with axe and in the meanwhile, the other accused Sangana Basappa A 3 , Rudrappa A 5 and Smt.
Basappa PW 8 along with Siddappa PW 9 and others tried to intervene in order to rescue the two deceased persons in vain as they were threatened by the accused with dire companysequences.
The sequence of events suggests that the origin leading to the fatal attack on the two deceased is traceable to the incident that took place on 29.5.1995 when Sangappa A 1 had tried to outrage the modesty of PW 10.
The incident in question had occurred at about 2.00 p.m. afternoon on 2.6.1995 in the garden land of Sangappa.
She went home and companyplained about the incident to the deceased Irappa who chastised Sangappa.
Be it numbered that PWs 1, 2, 3 and 4 did number support the case of the prosecution and hence they were declared hostile.
In the meanwhile, Investigation Officer received the intimation from the hospital about the death of injured Kenchappa and immediately proceeded to the hospital and held inquest over the body of the deceased Kenchappa.
That all the accused who were armed with deadly weapons questioned the propriety on the part of Irappa in companying to their place and making an inquiry about the incident of assault on his son.
Dr. Ramappa PW 5 is the Medical Officer, who held autopsy on the dead body of the deceased Kenchappa and issued the post mortem report Ex.
It is at a distance of about 10 kms.
The prosecution, in order to establish its case, had altogether examined 15 witnesses PW 1 to PW 15 at the trial and placed on record Exhibits P 1 to P 17 and M.Os 1 to 16.
The assault had been companyjointly companymitted by all the appellants.
The report of the serologist Ex.
Chandrappa PW 7 had been examined to speak about the incident which took place on 29.5.1995 and also to the occurrence, which took place on 2.6.1995 but he did number support the prosecution case and was declared hostile.
Basappa PW 8 is the father of PW 10 and eye witness to the incident which took place on 2.6.1995, wherein two deceased Kenchappa and Irappa had been assaulted.
That immediately after the incident the first information had been lodged by Basappa PW 8 with the SHO, Nagappa PW 14 at the Kolhar Police Station.
Both Irappa and his brother Kenchappa the other deceased rushed to the garden land of Sangappa in order to enquire as to what transpired in the matter.
Inquest proceedings over the dead body of deceased Irappa were held on 3.6.1995 and statements of PW 3, PW 4, PW 7, PW 9, PW 10 and PW 11 were recorded.
P 16 discloses that blood stains found on jambiya since disintegrated, origin companyld number be determined but the two axes were found to be stained with human blood.
On 2.6.1995 at about 11.00 a.m. in the morning when Laxman PW 15 was in his fields looking after the sheep, Sangappa went there and assaulted Laxman with a stick over the issue of being chastised by his father Irappa.
FIR was registered at about 3.30 p.m. Out of the two injured persons, Irappa died on the spot while the injured Kenchappa succumbed to the injuries in the hospital.
from the police station.
Dr. Yalagurdacharya PW 12 , is the Medical Officer, who companyducted the post mortem examination on the dead body of the deceased Irappa and found the following external injuries on the dead body of Irappa Lacerated wound 4.5 cms.
Lacerated wound on the left parietal area 2.5 cms.
