Point of Law: Part II of Section 304 of IPC comes into play when the death is caused by doing an act with knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but there is no intention on the part of the accused either to cause death or to cause such bodily injury as is likely to cause death.

JUDGMENT :

This Appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 20.10.2015 rendered by the Trial Court in Sessions Case No.102/2014, sentencing the appellant/accused to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/-, in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for six months for an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short 'IPC') and simple imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for one month for the offence under Section 201 of IPC.

2. Heard the arguments of Sri.Javeed.S., learned counsel representing the appellant/accused and Smt.Rashmi Jadhav, learned HCGP representing the respondent/State. Perused the impugned judgment and the evidence relied by both sides.

3. The case pleaded by the prosecution is that, the appellant/accused (hereinafter referred to as 'the accused') was married to one Smt.Anitha. Both were residents of Hiremegalagere village of Davangere taluk. The accused was addicted to bad vices, such as, drinking alcohol, it was a routine everyday and for this reason, his wife was not entertaining him for physical contact and for this reason, he used to quarrel against her that she is not coming in contact physically with him and hence, he was suspecting her fidelity and doubted that she had an illicit relationship with some one else and due to this, he had a motive against her to commit her murder and was prosecuting ill-will.

4. On 02.04.2014 at about 7.00 p.m., when the deceased Anitha had gone to attend the nature call near tank canal, the accused in prosecution of his intention to commit her murder has purchased a blade from the shop of PW-16/Parashurama and followed the deceased and on canal bund, he took out a quarrel against her that she is not coming for physical contact and that she had an illicit relationship with someone else and caught-hold of her and pushed her to the ground and by means of blade purchased from the shop of PW-16, he slit the throat and committed her murder. In order to destroy the evidence so as to screen from the allegation of murder, he thrown the dead body near a tree and put weeds and concealed the dead body and had returned back to village. From there, the accused came to Renuka Bar and Restaurant situated at Hiremegalagere village, at that time, while he was purchasing liquor, PW-14/Ninganagouda Patil observed that there were bloodstains on his cloth and he was keeping 'Thali' in his shirt pocket. PW-13/Nagappa Chandrappa had seen the deceased going to attend the nature call towards the canal and PW-7/Bullapurada Mallikarjuna and PW-12/Swandera Ningappa had seen the accused following the deceased towards canal bund.

5. PW-10/Shasappa, the father of the deceased on the next day morning came to know about the incident and set the criminal law into motion by filing a complaint under Ex.P2. PW-18/Gururaja, PSI of Arasikere Police Station registered the FIR/Ex.P8 and apprehended the accused, recorded voluntary statement of the accused, bloodstained cloths of accused was seized under Ex.P14/mahazar, later conducted the spot panchanama in the presence of PW-1/K.Basavarajappa and PW-2/Kariya Dandeppa and thereafter, conducted the inquest in the presence of PW-4/Hanumanthamma. The accused took the Police to the spot and shown the blade used for commission of the offence as per M.O.3/blades where mahazar/Ex.P3 was drawn and blood stained soil was also collected. During the course of investigation, spot mahazar was drawn as per Ex.P6 in the presence of PW-9/Anjinappa and PW-10/Shasappa, where the betel lime-box used by the accused as per M.O.4, bloodstained broken bangle pieces of the deceased as per M.O.5 and bloodstained soil as per M.O.6 were also seized under Ex.P6/mahazar. The accused is in judicial custody since 05.04.2014.

6. PW-23/R.Hanumanthappa is the Investigating Officer, who recorded the statement of the witnesses and PW-19/Rudrappa, CPI collected th