O R D E R

The concurrent verdicts of the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Kunnamangalam, and the Additional Sessions Judge-III, Kozhikode, in C.C.No.427/1998 & Crl.A.No.218/2004, respectively, convicting the petitioner for the commission of offences under Sections 279 & 304A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short, ‘ IPC ’), are under challenge in this revision petition. The Appellate Court reduced the sentence of rigorous imprisonment of six months and one year respectively, imposed by the Trial Court, to rigorous imprisonment for three months and six months. So also, the default sentence of three months’ simple imprisonment was reduced by the Appellate Court to 15 days.

2. The prosecution case is that the petitioner drove a mini lorry in a rash and negligent manner, likely to endanger human life on 09.03.1998, at about 8:45 p.m., through a public road, and caused the above vehicle to hit from behind a person by name ‘Karunakaran’ walking through the left side of that road, leading to serious injuries to which he succumbed after a few days.

3. Before the Trial Court