IMPORTANT POINT
Circumstantial evidence must form a complete chain pointing to guilt, and extrajudicial confessions require corroboration to be credible.

JUDGMENT :

K. SREENIVASA REDDY, J.

1. This Criminal Appeal by the appellant-sole accused is directed against the judgment, dated 14.12.2016, in Sessions Case No. 112 of 2014 on the file of the Judge, Family Court-cum-III Additional District and Sessions Judge, Srikakulam, whereby the appellant was found guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short ‘IPC’) and accordingly he was convicted of the said offences and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.10,000/- in default to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of six months for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/- in default to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of six months for the offence punishable under Section 201 IPC. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

2. The substance of the charges framed against the appellant/sole accused is that on 31.12.2012 at about 4.00 PM, the accused took Balaga Appalaraju (hereinafter referred to, as ‘the deceased’) to Madduvalasa project, Vangara on the plea of bathing and while taking bath, the accused kicked on the testicles of the deceased and pushed him into reservoir water, bearing grudge against the deceased as he was getting profits more than the accused and also insulted the accused for not returning Rs.2,000/- which was taken as hand loan by the accused from the deceased and thereby committed murder of the deceased which is an offence punishable under Section 302 IPC; and having knowledge that the accused committed an offence punishable under Section 302 IPC, the accused secreted wearing apparel of the deceased i.e. red colour shirt, cap and Nokia cell phone and thereby caused evidence of commission of the offence of murder to disappear with an intention of screening himself from legal punishment and thereby the accused committed an offence punishable under Section 201 IPC.

3. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is as follows:

PW-1 is wife of the deceased. She is resident of Sivvam village, Vangara Mandal. Accused is resident of Vangara village and mandal. The deceased used to plough lands of peasants on rental basis. The accused is a close relative to the deceased and he was also living by running a tractor and doing the same business. Because of his hard work, the deceased was getting good profits in his profession than the accused, and the same became an eye sore to the accused. The accused took a hand loan of Rs.2,000/- from the deceased, but did not repay it, and for not repaying the same, the deceased insulted the accused in the presence of villagers.

On 31.12.2012, PW-23 engaged tractor of the deceased for ploughing his land while PW-3 engaged tractor of the accused. But, due to lack of plough set, the deceased and PW-24 went to land of PW-3, where the accused was ploughing the land of PW-3, and asked the accused to give his plough set. The accused was not inclined to give the same stating that the work was not completed. At about 2.00 PM, the accused and PW-4 went for lunch and asked the deceased to continue plough work with the tractor of the accused. The deceased accordingly continued doing plough work. But, due to lack of diesel in the tractor of the accused, the deceased could not continue the work and the same was informed to the accused over phone. On the instructions of the accused over phone, the deceased left the field of PW-3 and went towards M. Sitarampuram village. PWs. 3, 17 and others noticed the deceased going towards M. Sitarampuram village. At about 3.30 PM on that day, PW-5 noticed the deceased and the accused going towards M. Sitarampuram village on a motorcycle driven by the accused, and on the way, they took Rs.100/- from PW-13 for consuming liquor. They purchased liquor in the wine shop of PW-6 in M. Sitarampuram village, consumed liquor at the shop of PW-7 and since then th