The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for the prosecution to prove the accused's intention to murder in cases of attempt to murder under S.307 IPC, and the analysis of the nature and extent of the violence and injurious means employed by the accused.

1. The appellant stands convicted by the Asst. Sessions Judge of Kottayam in Sessions Case 78 of 1966 and sentenced under S.307, IPC. to R. I. for 5 years. He was charged with having attempted to cause the death of pw. 5 by hitting him with an axe. The blow fell on his right eye and on receipt of the blow he fell down, on the ground. After the fall a second blow was struck with the same weapon which hit the right side of the skull. By the time, pw. 2 intervened and snatched away the weapon from the accused. The accused then escaped from the place. pw. 5 was lying unconscious and he was taken to the road side and from there he was removed in a car to the medical college hospital, Kottayam. The occurrence took place at about 11-30 a. m on 15 8 66 in the Chotti estate at Mundakayam. pw. 5 the injured, was then the Asst. Conductor of the estate. On 15 8 66 he had gone to the estate with some coolies for planting rubber seedlings and for that purpose the coolies were engaged in digging pits. The accused is a squatter in the estate. Pits were dug in the courtyard of his residence also. That was resented to by him and he asked pw. 1 one of the coolies engaged in the work whether they were planting seedlings in his courtyard also. pw.1 replied in the affirmative. pw. 6 who was then standing by the side of pw.1 enquired of the accused if he had any objection in the pits being dug there. The accused in a sarcastic way said that he had no objection; but the seedling, if any planted there, would not sprout. pw. 5 then told the accused in a firm voice that he had come to plant the seedlings and that, he would do. The accused then in an apparently friendly way said that he himself would help them in digging pits and so saying he sat down and began to remove earth with his hand for planting the seedling. In the next moment he was seen moving backward and taking an axe that lay on the varanda of his shed. In no time he dealt a blow with the axe on pw. 5. It hit him on his right eye and when he fell down one more blow was struck which hit his skull. He then aimed a third blow but by that time he was caught hold of by pw. 2 and the axe was also seized from him.

2. At about 1-30 p. m. the injured reached the medical college hospital, Kottayam and he was attended to by pw. 3 the doctor. pw. 3 conveyed information to the police and pw. 9 the head constable of the Kottayam West Police station proceeded to the hospital and recorded the F. I. statement from pw. 4. Crime No. 28/66 was registered and it was transferred to the file of the Sub Inspector, Mundakayam within whose jurisdiction the occurrence had taken place. There the crime was re-registered as crime No. 60/66. The Sub Inspector then proceeded to the scene, prepared the scene mahazar and the investigation was also taken up by him. The charge sheet was filed on 2410 66.

3. The accused was in custody all the time and when questioned under S.342 Cr. P. C. he stated that the shed in which he was residing was put up by him 16 years ago and he was residing there all these years. At the time of his occupation it was a vacant space and he had got it registered as a kudikidappu in 1964. When the fact of registration came to the notice of the estate people they got enraged at him and were thereafter trying every means to evict him from there. He is a member of the scheduled caste and according to him under the existing law he is not liable to be evicted; but in spite of that the estate owner had been insisting on his eviction from the place. His mother had sent representations to the revenue authorities and the police that they should not be evicted and all these have added to the ill-feeling that was already there between him and the estate owner. While so, on 15 8 66 watcher Kuttapan and a gang of hirelings made their appearance in his house fully drunk and began to belabour him. He was rendered unconscious by the beatings and he could not recollect what all happened there. The learned As