Criminal liability under Section 34 requires proof of common intention and active participation; conviction found justified for one accused due to credible evidence, while others acquitted for lack of evidence.

JUDGMENT :

G. BASAVARAJA, J.

1. Appellants/accused have preferred this appeal against the Judgment of conviction and order on sentence dated 26^th February 2020 passed in SC No.19 of 2018 by the Principal Sessions Judge, Dharwad (for short hereinafter referred to as the “trial Court”.)

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties herein are referred to with their rank and status before the trial Court.

3. Facts leading to the case are that, the Police Inspector Dharwad Rural Circle submitted chargesheet against accused 1 to 4 for commission of offence punishable under Section 302 , 504, read with Section 34 of INDIAN PENAL CODE . It is alleged that on 12^th September 2017 at 3.00 am, complainant- Shivappa Irappa Pandeshi lodged complaint as per Exhibit P1 before the Police Sub-Inspector of Garag Police Station. In the complaint it is stated that the complainant, along with his family, is residing at Kottur Village and he is an agriculturist. He has five children, viz. Basavaraj, Suresh, Shobha, Sangamesh, and Manjunath. His eldest son Basavaraj is also an agriculturist. For the past one year, in connection with previous enmity, accused No.1-Junglisab was nurturing ill-will against his son and on the intervening night of 11^th & 12^th September 2017, he received an information about assault on his son and that his son has been admitted to District Hospital, Dharwad. After confirming the same from Muttu Badiger a friend of his son, he along with his wife, went to Dharwad District Hospital, wherein he saw that his son was dead. On enquiring with Muttu Badiger, he revealed that while he along with his friends, Nagaraj, Sanjeev and Praveen were returning to their village from Kottur Cross, at that time, in front of the Kirana shop of Hosamani, Basavaraj and accused No.1- Junglisab were quarreling. After enquiring about the quarrel, they tried to pacify the same. At that time, the uncle of accused No.1-Imamsab who is accused No.2, and his sons Rajesab and Asif who are accused 3 & 4 respectively, started to quarrel with Basavaraj. When PW5-Muttu Badiger and his friends asked Basavaraj to leave the place, accused No.1- Junglisab came out of his shop by abusing Basavaraj. When Basavaraj objected accused No.1, accused 2 to 4 came near Basavaraj and started assaulting him with fist and also kicked him. At that time, accused No.1-Junglisab stabbed Basavaraj with knife near his nose and on his chest, causing severe bleeding injuries. When they started to shout, accused 1 to 4 fled from the spot. By then, it was about 9:45 pm. Immediately, injured Basavaraj was shifted to District Hospital, Dharwad wherein doctors have told them he has been brought dead. Therefore, complaint-Exhibit P1 came to be lodged before Garag Police where a case came to be registered in Crime No.144 of 2017 for the offences punishable under Sections 302 , 504 & 324, read with Section 34 of INDIAN PENAL CODE and First Information Report was submitted before the jurisdictional Magistrate as per Exhibit P13. After completion of investigation, Investigating Officer submitted charge sheet against accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 and 504 read with Section 34 of INDIAN PENAL CODE . After filing chargesheet, jurisdictional Magistrate has taken cognizance against the accused for the aforesaid offences and case was registered in CC No.1105 of 2017. After committal