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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