The court clarified the legal framework of culpable homicide and murder under the Indian Penal Code, emphasizing the importance of mens rea and the application of different sections based on the nature of the offence and the intention or knowledge of the offender.

T.C. Raghavan, J.

1. The appeal is by the State against the two accused persons in Sessions Case No. 61 of 1969 on the file of the Court of the Second Additional Sessions Judge of Trivandrum, in which the first respondent was acquitted of the charge of murder but convicted under S.304 part II of the Penal Code and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years and the second respondent was completely acquitted.

2. The two respondents are father and son respectively; and the deceased (Henry Nadar) was the brother of the first respondent, and Pw. 2, who sustained injuries at the same incident, was the adopted son of Henry Nadar. The mother of the first respondent and Henry Nadar had a coconut garden, which was claimed to be in the management of Henry Nadar, with whom the mother was living. On 16th May 1969, the respondents entered this garden and plucked coconuts without the permission of the mother; and on the day of occurrence, 20th May, in the evening when the respondents met Henry Nadar in front of the tea shop of Pw. 4. Henry Nadar questioned the respondents why they entered the garden and plucked coconuts without the mother's permission. Some altercation ensued, during which Pw. 2 came to the scene. pw. 2 beat the second respondent and the second respondent beat pw. 2 back. In the fight that followed, the first respondent stabbed Henry Nadar twice on his chest with a knife, and a little later when Henry Nadar tried to escape, the first respondent stabbed him twice more. The second respondent, during the fight between him and Pw. 2, brought a spade from behind the shop of Pw. 4 and beat pw. 2 with its handle on his shoulder. Then, a Nesayyan intervened and wrested the spade from the second respondent; and when Henry Nadar fell down on receiving the stabs, the assailants ran away from the place.

3. Henry Nadar was removed to the Primary Health Centre at Vellarada, from where, since the injuries were serious, he was taken to the Medical College Hospital at Trivandrum. Pws. 1 and 3 accompanied him; and pw. 1 gave the first information to the police, who came to the hospital. Pw. 2 was treated at the Vellarada Primary Health Centre by pw. 10. Six days after Henry Nadar died. On receipt of the first information the police started investigation; and after the death of Henry Nadar on 26th May, the charge was altered into one under S.302 and the investigation proceeded. Pw. 9, the Professor of Forensic Medicine, Medical College, Trivandrum, conducted the autopsy on the dead body of Henry Nadar and Pw. 6, who saw him for the first time at the Medical College Hospital on the night of 20th May, issued a wound certificate.

4. The respondents were absconding; and they surrendered at the police station at 1.30 p.m. on 5th June 1969. At the time of surrender, the first respondent had with him the knife alleged to have been used by him, which the police took into custody. The further investigation proceeded, the charge sheet was duly filed; the Preliminary Enquiry followed and the trial also followed.

5. The case of the respondents in their statements under S.342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure might now be noted. The second respondent merely stated that he agreed with what the first respondent stated and that he had nothing further to add. The first respondent's case was that he was taking tea at Chella Panicker's tea shop near the scene of occurrence; that Henry Nadar was then in Pappu Panicker's tea shop opposite the place; that Henry Nadar sent a boy to the arrack shop of Ravi nearby for getting arrack; that Ravi told the boy that there was no bottle in the shop and that, if anybody wanted arrack, he should go to the shop and drink there; that the boy returned and reported the matter to Henry Nadar; that Henry Nadar sent the boy again with a bottle; that the boy returned with arrack, which Henry Nadar took that he came out to the road; that an altercation ensued between Henry Nadar and the respondents; that Pw. 2 came there th