NARAVAN RAO Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The main question for determination in this appeal by special leave is whether and, if so, how far non-compliance with the provisions of Ss. 173 (4) and 207A (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, has affected the legality of the proceedings and the trial resulting in the conviction of the appellant. The appellant was tried by the learned Sessions Judge of Karimnagar in what used to be the State of Hyderabad (now part of the State of Andhra Pradesh), under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code, for the murder of his brother Baga Rao, and sentenced to death.

(2.) The facts of the case are short and simple. The murdered man Baga Rao who was an excise contractor, had separated from his other brothers aforesaid, and had partitioned the family lands. There were differences amongst the brothers which had led to arbitration proceedings a few months earlier, which did not satisfy Baga Rao. On the Saturday previous to the Monday 26th December 1955 which was the day of the occurrence, there was a quarrel between Baga Rao on one side and Lingarao and Narsingrao on the other in the field said to belong to Baga Rao.

(3.) The case against the appellant as also against other accused persons not before this Court, rested mainly on the evidence of Dharmiah P.W. 1 and Ramchander Rao P.W. 2 who figure as the eyewitnesses. Besides their testimony, there is the evidence of the recovery of the blood-stained garments from the houses of the accused persons and the bloodstained knife found near the dead body and identified in Court as belonging to the appellant, which were all found by the chemical examiner, to have stains of human blood. The Courts below have relied upon the evidence of the eye-witnesses, corroborated by the incriminating circumstances aforesaid, and have agreed in convicting and sentencing the accused as stated above.