JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha, J. —

1. Leave granted.

2. Appellant (Accused No.3) along with Suresh (Accused No.1) and Ranganatha (Accused No. 2) was charged with for commission of offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short, ‘IPC’) on the accusation that they had due to previous ill-will, in furtherance of their common intention, caused the death of one Venkatesh (‘the deceased’). Accused No. 1 assaulted the deceased with an iron rod on his head and other parts of the body and accused Nos. 2 and 3 assaulted him with fists and kicks and, thus, caused hurt and voluntarily caused his death and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC.

3. A wine shop commonly known as ‘Nandi Wines’ is situated at Nandi village behind Yoganandeshwara Temple. Appellant was an employee of the said shop. Accused No.2 was supplier of wine to the said shop and accused No. 1 was a customer thereof.

Deceased was an agriculturist. He ordinarily used to return home at 7:00 p.m. However, on the date of incident, i.e., on 13.10.2000, he did not return to his house.

P.W.1- Munegowda, the brother of the deceased, on being asked