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IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU

DATED THIS THE 25^TH DAY OF JANUARY, 2019

PRESENT

THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE B.A. PATIL

AND

THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE R. DEVDAS

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.941/2015

BETWEEN:

Gangaraju

S/o Gejjigangappa

Aged about 24 years

R/o Ramapattana Village

Mandikal Hobli

Chickaballapura Taluk

& District-562 101.

… Appellant

(By Sri D. Nagaraja Reddy, Advocate)

AND:

State of Karnataka

through the Gudibande Police

Chickaballapura

Represented by State Public Prosecutor

High Court of Karnataka

Bangalore-560 001.

… Respondent

(By Sri Vijaya Kumar Majage, Addl. SPP)

This Criminal Appeal is filed under Section

374(2) of Cr.P.C praying to set aside the judgment

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and order dated 05.02.2015 passed by the Prl.

District and Sessions Judge, Chickaballapura, in

S.C.No.117/2013, convicting the appellant/accused

for the offence punishable under Section 302 of

Indian Penal Code.

This Criminal Appeal having been heard and

reserved

on

05.01.2019

coming

on

for

pronouncement of judgment this day, B.A.Patil J.,

delivered the following:-

J U D G M E N T

Accused by challenging the judgment and

order of conviction and sentence passed by the

Principal

District

and

Sessions

Judge,

Chickaballapura,

in

SC.No.117/2013,

dated

5.2.2015 is before this Court in this appeal.

2. Facts leading to the case are that prior to

the alleged incident, accused-appellant tried to

outrage the modesty of the daughter of the brother

of the deceased. Deceased and other persons went

and advised the accused to keep good behaviour.

On the very night when the deceased was sleeping,

accused came and assaulted with a stone and

caused grievous injuries to the deceased. A

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complaint was registered against the accused in this

behalf. With an earlier ill-will accused hatched a

plan to commit the murder of Chikkagangappa and

by seeing him, on 21.4.2013 at about 6.30 a.m.,

when the deceased Chikkagangappa had been to

the land of K.T.Aswathreddy to attend the second

call of nature, at that time, he came and assaulted

Chikkagangappa with an axe and caused the

grievous injuries on the head and other parts of the

body of Chikkagangappa. As a result of the same,

Chikkagangappa fell down and breathed his last. It

is further case of the prosecution that the said fact

was informed to the son of the deceased Srinivas

who was residing in Bangalore. He immediately

came from Bangalore and by seeing the alleged

incident, he went to Police Station and filed a

complaint as per Ex.P1. On the basis of the said

complaint, a case came to be registered against the

accused in Crime No.72/2013 for the offence

punishable under Section 302 of IPC. After

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completion

of

investigation,

the

Investigating

Agency filed the charge sheet against the accused.

The committal Court took cognizance and as the

case was triable by the Sessions Court, it was

committed to the Sessions Court. After committal,

the Sessions Court took cognizance and by securing

the presence of the accused and after hearing the

learned Public Prosecutor and the learned counsel

for the accused, charge was prepared, which was

read over and explained to the accused. Accused

pleaded not guilty and as such the trial was fixed.

3. In order to prove its case, the prosecution

got examined 10 witnesses as PWs.1 to 10 and got

marked 23 documents as per Exs.P1 to P23 along

with 9 Material Objects. After closure of the

prosecution evidence, the statement of the accused

was recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C. by

putting incriminating material against him which he

denied. Accused has neither led any evidence nor

got any documents marked. After hearing the

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learned counsel appearing for the parties, the trial

Court passed the judgment and order of conviction

and

sentence

whereunder

accused

has

been

convicted for the offence punishable under Section

302 of IPC and se