- (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 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 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.;