The court upheld the conviction under IPC Section 324 but modified the sentence to 19 days due to mitigating factors, emphasizing the need for adherence to the Probation of Offenders Act.

JUDGMENT :

G. BASAVARAJA, J.

1. Appellants have preferred this appeal against the judgment of conviction and order on sentence dated 03.01.2013 passed in SC.No.1274/2010 by the Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge, Bangalore (for short 'the trial Court').

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties herein are referred to as per their rank before the trial Court.

3. Brief facts leading to this appeal are that, the Police Inspector, K.P.Agrahara Station laid a charge sheet against the accused for the offence under Section 341 , 504, 324, 307 r/w 34 of IPC . It is alleged by the prosecution that, CW.1/PW.1-S.Somashekar was running the auto of CW.2-N.Ravi on rent and the working hours were from 9.30-10.00 A.M. to 11.00 P.M. On 13.07.2010, CW.1/PW.1 took the auto at 9.30 A.M. from the auto shed and returned by 11.30 P.M. PW.1 and CW.2 Ravi came from the auto shed. At that time, accused Nos.1 and 2 were waiting for him at some distance from the auto shed and accused No.1 Raja abused him as 'bolimagane' for, during the previous week he intervened and pacified the quarrel between CW.2-Ravi and CW.3-Vinod. Accused No.1 stating so, he took out knife from his right pocket and assaulted on his neck. At that time, CW.2-Ravi came to his rescue and accused No.2-Soma assaulted him with knife on his left thumb and accused No.2 made an attempt to assault CW.2 on his face with knife, and to avoid the blow CW.2 raised his left hand and sustained injury to his left hand thumb. At that time, CW.5-Jayaram and CW.6- Raghavendra also came to pacify the quarrel and accused Nos.1 and 2 fled from the spot.

4. PW.1 sustained injury on the left side of his neck and there was bleeding on his T-shirt and banian. Within 5-10 minutes, the police came to the spot and PW.1 and CW.2 were shifted to hospital. The Doctor stitched the wound and then the complainant went to the Police Station at 3.00 am (midnight) and lodged his complaint as per Ex.P1 and his signature is at Ex.P1(a).

5. PW.1 under Ex.P1, has set the criminal law into motion and PW.9-Chikkakariyappa, PSI, recorded the statement of PW.1 and registered the case in Crime No. 193/2010 for the offence u/s 307 r/w 34 of IPC .

6. On investigation, the IO has submitted charge sheet against accused for the of commission of alleged offences. The accused Nos.1 and 2 were arrested by the Police on 14.07.2010 and enlarged on bail on 03.08.2010 as per the order passed by the Fast Track Court-XIII, Bangalore in Crl.Misc.No.3148/2010. After filing the charge sheet, case was registered in CC.No.40211/2010. Thereafter, case was committed to the Court of Sessions and case was registered in SC.No.1274/2010. On hearing the charges, the trial Court has framed the charges for the commission of offence under sections 341, 504, 324, 307 read with 34 of IPC . Same was read over and explained to the accused. Having understood the same, accused pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

7. To prove the guilt of the accused, Ten witnesses were examined as PWs.1 to 10. Ten documents were marked as Exhibits P1 to 10. Three material objects were marked as MO.Nos.1 to 3.

8. On closure of prosecution side evidence, statement under Section 313 of Cr.P.C. was recorded. The accused have totally denied the evidence of prosecution witnesses. However, they did not choose to lead any defence evidence on their behalf.

9. Having heard the arguments on both sides, trial Court has acquitted the accused for the offence under sections 341, 504 and 307 r/w 34 of IPC . However, convicted the accused Nos.1 and 2 for the offence under Section 324 r/w 34 of