IMPORTANT POINTS
Lodging of FIR; Statement of hostile witness; Dying declaration.

JUDGMENT

Swatanter Kumar, J.- The present appeal is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Karnataka, Bangalore, dated 4th December, 2007 confirming the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the Fast Track (Sessions) Judge-III, Bangalore City, dated 26th October and 28th October, 2004, respectively convicting the appellant under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, the ‘IPC’) and awarding him sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs.10,000/-, in default thereto to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of three and a half years.

2.The facts leading to the demise of the deceased Kuppa can be stated as follows: Head Constable Sadashivaiah, PW2, received an intimation at about 10.30 p.m. in the night of 14th February, 2003 from the doctor on duty at the Victoria Hospital stating that a badly injured person had been admitted to the Victoria Hospital. After receiving this information, PW2 proceeded to Victoria Hospital and approached the duty doctor, Dr. Girija. The said police officer found the deceased in a sound state of mind and the duty doctor duly endorsed regarding fitness of the deceased to make a statement. Accordingly, the Head Constable recorded the statement of the deceased Kuppa and the same was exhibited as Ex.P2. When PW2 was examined as a witness in the Court, he identified the MLC report, Ex.P3 and also identified the endorsement of the duty doctor on the said dying declaration regarding fitness of the injured as Ex.P2 (b). After recording the statement, the same was handed over to the PSI Shivanna for further investigation. According to the statement of the deceased, as recorded by PW2, there was previous animosity between him and the appellant and on 14th February, 2003 at 7.45 p.m. when he and PW3 were proceeding to have meals and go to their house after the day’s work, they met the appellant who said that he would do away with the deceased and stabbed him with knife on his stomach due to which he fell down. Even thereafter, the accused did not spare him and repeatedly assaulted him with glass bottles on his head and face, causing grievous injuries. Anthoni, PW3, took him to the hospital and got him admitted.

3.PW3 has stated in his statement before the Court that on 14th February, 2003 at about 7.15 p.m., he and the deceased were proceeding towards hotel for tiffin, at Double Road, Lal Bagh when they were near the MP Stores, the appellant was standing there. Looking at Kuppa, the appellant had started abusing Kuppa and uttered that he would commit murder of Kuppa. Immediately thereafter, the appellant started assaulting Kuppa on the right side of his stomach with a knife and caused grievous injuries. Kuppa fell down, meanwhile, the appellant assaulted him with a bottle on the forehead and ran away. The people had gathered there. Then, he had taken Kuppa to the hospital and got him admitted. This witness duly identified the knife, MO-1 used by the appellant as well as the broken glass pieces of the bottle marked as MO-2. He even identified the T-shirt that Kuppa was wearing on the day of the incident which was blood-stained marked as MO-3. Moreover, he identified the towel as MO-4 and the blood- stained pant of Kuppa as MO-5. This witness stated that he knew both the deceased and the accused for the last more than 12 years. According to this witness, the street light was there at the time of the incident.

4.Unfortunately, Kuppa succumbed to his injuries and died in the hospital on 15th February, 2003 at 7.00 a.m. Dr. Naveen (PW1) informed the police and prepared the death memo, Ex.P1. Dr. Udayashankar (PW8) performed the post-mortem on the body of the deceased and noticed the injuries of the deceased and the cause of death as follows: - “Injuries :- External examination :-Length of the body is 170 cms. Well built. Dark brown complexion. Rigor mortis is present all over the body and liver mortis faintly present on the back. Hospital ban