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JUDGMENT

REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL

APPEAL

NO.

671

OF

2005

Nagesh

… Appellant

Versus

State of Karnataka

… Respondent

J U D G M

E N T

Swatanter

Kumar,

J .

1.

A Bench of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore vide

its judgment dated 19^th December, 2003 while rejecting all the

contentions raised by the accused Nagesh, confirmed the

judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the trial

court vide its judgment dated 18^th January, 2000 convicting the

accused for an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal

Code, 1860 (IPC) and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment

for life and pay a fine of Rs.2000/- in default to undergo further

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JUDGMENT

rigorous imprisonment for six months.

Aggrieved from the

judgment of the High Court, the accused has preferred the

present appeal.

2.

We may, at the very outset, briefly refer to the facts as per

the case of the prosecution. The deceased, Smt. Nagaratna,

was a student of second year Pre-University College (PUC) at the

relevant time. Her parents, namely Smt. Sumitra, PW4 and

Shivarai Shetti, PW9, had six daughters. PW9 was running a

small tea shop at Gokarna. The deceased was earlier staying

with her parents. The accused No.1, Anant, was a close relative

of Nagaratna and was unmarried at the relevant time. Accused

No.1 also was the resident of Gokarna but at that time was

residing at Belgaum. The other two accused, namely, Venketesh,

Accused No.1 and Nagesh, Accused No.3, were brothers-in-law of

Anant. All of them were residents of village Gokarna. Anant had

pressed upon the parents of Nagaratna for sending her to

Belgaum with him. During the Ganapathi festival, she had

visited her parents at Gokarna and was very reluctant to go back

to Belgaum. However, Anant again persuaded her parents to

send her to Belgaum promising them to secure her a good job at

Belgaum. Her parents, thus, had sent her back with him to

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JUDGMENT

Belgaum. Hence, at the relevant time, she was staying with

Anant at Belgaum.

3.

PW1, Smt. Roopa, is the owner of the building called ‘Sai

Prasad’, bearing No.304/31 and CCB No. 18 situated at Shastri

Nagar, Goodshed Road, Belgaum comprising of three blocks.

She herself was staying in one of the blocks with her husband

and children while Anant was staying in the second block along

with the deceased, Nagaratna.

Chotubhai, PW2, was also

residing in the upstairs portion of the same block. In other

words, PW1 and PW2, both were the immediate neighbours of

Anant.

4.

On 7^th October, 1993 at about 5.00 p.m. in the evening,

Anant had gone to the temple leaving Nagaratna alone in the

house. The accused Nagesh, appellant herein, came to the

house of Anant and tried to outrage the modesty of the deceased

and have sexual intercourse with her. But when she resisted

such attempts then Nagesh assaulted her and is stated to have

murdered her by administering poison.

5.

Smt. Roopa, PW1, saw Anant returning to the house at

about 8.30 p.m. and taking the deceased Nagaratna along with

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JUDGMENT

him outside the house by holding her hands. On her enquiry,

she was told by Anant that Nagaratna was not well and was

being taken for treatment to the doctor. PW1 also tried to

enquire from Nagaratna as to what had happened to her but she

was unable to give any reply except that she was producing or

making some groaning/moaning sound of “huhu huhu”. Upon

this, PW1 gave some saline water to Nagaratna. In the

meantime, Venketesh came there with an Ambassador car. By

then, some persons from the neighbourhood had also gathered

there. Even a police jeep had come there. Thereafter, the

deceased was put into the car and the police jeep as well as the

car left from the place.

6.

It is stated that Chotubhai, PW2 who was watching

television in his house at about