KRISHNA PILLAI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Nomads wander from place to place in search of greener pastures and the boundaries of States present no barriers to them (See : Lakshman v. Stale of Madhya Pradesh . The victim in the instant case is a 3-112 year old girl by name Nallaka who belonged to a nomadic family from Tamilnadu and strayed to Kerala. She went to sleep with her siblings and parents in the central room of the comfort station in a Private Bus stand at Adoor on the night of 2.12.2005. Her father woke up at 1.00 A.M. past mid night to find his daughter missing from the place of sleep. A person sleeping in the same room of the comfort station who was heavily drunk blurted out that he saw the girl walking away. The search for the missing girl ended when she was found dead in a property few meters away from the bus stand on the morning of 7.12.2005. The suspicion centered around the person who was also sleeping in the room as he was seen loitering around the bus stand in the recent past. He was arrested on 8.12.2005 and a sordid story of rape and murder of the minor girl was thus unfolded. The girl was allegedly abducted, raped and murdered and her body concealed underneath a heap of granite powder in a plot of land. The accused was charge sheeted for offence punishable under Ss. 366, 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code ('the Code' for short). The court below convicted the accused under S.366 of the Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six years. He was also directed to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- on that count and in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. The court below convicted the accused under S.376 of the Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. He was also directed to pay a fine of Rs. 15,000/- on that count and in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. The court below further convicted the accused under S.302 of the Code and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life. The accused has come up in appeal seriously assailing the judgment of conviction and the sentence imposed on him on various counts.

(2.) The owner of the property where the dead body of the girl was found and who lodged Ext. P-1 First Information Statement was examined as PW.1. The mother who went to sleep along with the girl and other family members was examined as PW.2. She identified the dead body and the dress (M.O.1), the hair band (M.O.2) and the bead chain (M.0.3) worn by the deceased. A shop keeper nearby selling audio cassettes and a coconut vendor in the bus stand were examined as PWs. 3 and 4 respectively. They testified that the parents of the girl had come in search of the girl and had made queries about her whereabouts on the morning of 3.12.2005. Pws. 3 and 4 were attesting witnesses to Ext. P-2 inquest report and PW.3 was an attesting witness to Ext. P-3 scene mahazar as well.

(3.) The wife of the tea shop licensee was examined as PW.5 who testified that the accused had come to her shop on the evening of 2.12.2005 to take food. The licensee of the tea shop who was an attesting witness to Ext. P-4 scene mahazar of the comfort station was examined as PW.6. The doctor who conducted the postmortem on the body of the deceased was examined as PW.7. He had issued Ext. P-5 postmortem certificate which reflected that there were seven ante- mortem injuries on the body. He had opined that the cause of death was due to injuries sustained to genitalia, abdomen and neck of the victim. The doctor who examined the accused and issued Ext. P-6 wound certificate and Ext. P-7 certificate (after conducting the potency test) was examined as PW.8.