HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURENDER CRIMINAL APPEAL No.868 OF 2012

JUDGMENT:

1. The appellants, who are A1, A3, and A4, are aggrieved by the conviction under Section 304 Part-II and the sentence of rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years, vide judgment in S.C.No.565 of 2007, dated 24.04.2012, passed by the V Additional District & Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court), Ranga Reddy District. 2. Briefly, the case of the prosecution is that the deceased was the husband of P.W.1. P.W.1, the deceased, and all the appellants used to work at Balreddy Stone Crusher Machines. A2 died during the course of the trial. According to P.W.1, these appellants and A2 fought with the deceased regarding the pathway in front of their huts. The quarrel took place in the morning hours. On the same day, in the evening, all four accused, keeping the dispute in mind, attacked the deceased with stones and sticks. The deceased fell unconscious after receiving several injuries. The incident was witnessed by P.W.1, P.W.2, and P.W.5. The deceased was initially taken to a private hospital in Shamshabad and was thereafter shifted to Osmania General Hospital. A Telugu written complaint was filed by P.W.1 on the next morning at 9.30 a.m. The incident had occured on the previous night, i.e., on 03.06.2005.

3. The Investigating Officer, having received the complaint, went to the scene of offence and examined the eye-witnesses. After conducting the scene of offence panchanama, P.W.7, who is the Investigating Officer, went to Osmania General Hospital and concluded the inquest proceedings. The body of the deceased was sent for postmortem examination. P.W.8 conducted the postmortem examination and found the following injuries:

1) Sutured wound obliquely placed over the outer end of left eye brow of 3 cms size with three sutures.

2) Sutured wound obliquely placed over left cheek, 7 cms in front of left ear, of 4 cms size with four sutures. Surrounding tissue swollen.

3) Abrasion of 3 cms x 0.5 cms over left cheek 5 cms above and left to the chin. Black in colour.

4) Abrasion of 1 cm x 0.5 cm over the midline of the neck in front, 5 cms below the chin. Black in colour.

5) Abrasion of 1 cm. x 0.5 cm over the left side of the neck, 8 cms below the left angle of mandible. Black in colour.

6) Abrasion of 1 cm. x 0.5 cm over left side of lower neck, 9 cms below the left angle of mandible. Balck in colour.

7) Abrasion of 1 cm. x 0.5 cm over front of left side chest, 4 cms below the outer third of clavicle. Black in colour.

8) Abrasion obliquely placed and irregular, of size 7cms x 0.5 cms, over left chest, 6 cms below left nipple and in the anterior axillary line. Black in colour.

9) Abrasion, vertically placed, 2 cm x 0.4 cms on the right side chest, 22 cms below the tip of the shoulder. Black in colour.

10) Abrasion, 3 cms x 0.5 cm, left side of the abdomen, 2 cms below the 7^th rib level in mid-axillary line. Black in colour.

11) Sutured wound vertically placed over the occipital scalp area of head, of size 7 cms, with seven sutures.

12) Linear and parallelly placed contusion, obliquely placed over right back of chest measuring 14 cms x 1 cm each, with one cm. gap in between. Bluish red in colour.

13) Scalp contusion with 0.5 cm thick hematoma underneath right parietal, temporal, and occipital areas of scalp, of 18 cms x 14 cms. Red in colour.

14) Horizontally placed linear fracture of 10 cms length present in the lower half of occipital bone at the back of the head.

15) Vertically placed linear fracture of right parietal skull bone, extending back and joining the occipital bone fracture, for a length of 15 cms. Between the two fracture lines, at the junction of the right parietal occipital bones. A bony fragment fracture of size 5 cms x 3 cms present.

16) About 150 CC of extra dural hematoma present over the right occipital parietal lobes of the brain.

17) Sub-dural and sub-arachnoids hemorrhages present all over the brain.

4. According to P.W.8, the death was on account of head injury asso