- (1.) THIS appeal is by the appellant-accused assailing the judgment of conviction dated 18-11-1998 for the offence under Sections 307 and 341 of the IPC in SC No. 93 of 1993 rendered by the I Additional Sessions judge, Mysore, sentencing him to undergo S. 1. for a period of 5 years for the offence under Section 307 and S. I. for a period of one month for the offence under Section 341 of the IPC.
(2.) THE case of the prosecution in brief is as follows: the accused-Venkatesh alias Tiger Venkatesh alias English venkatesh, the resident of Kuvempu Nagar, Mysore, was a coolie, plucking the coconuts from the trees at the request of the owners. P. W. 13-Sri M. N. Venkatasubbaiah, Advocate, who is residing at saraswathipuram, Mysore, appears to have warned and advised the accused-Venkatesh, while he was making galata with P. W. 8-Paddama, who is the neighbourer of P. W. 13-Venkatasubbaiah. In that connection, it appears P. W. 13-M. N. Venkatasubbaiah, reported to saraswathipuram Police, whereas the accused was secured and warned. Thereafter, on 17-3-1993, at about 2. 15 p. m. , while P. W. 13-Venkatasubbaiah was proceeding to his house on his moped bearing no. KA 09-H. 2069 at Saraswathipuram, from the Court, the accused-Venkatesh stopped him from proceeding further near the tailoring Shop of one Ninganna-P. W. 9 and the house of one Advocate venkatachalapathy, sprinkled chilly powder on the face of P. W. 13-Venkatasubbaiah, caught hold of his stuff and assaulted him with machchu-M. O. 3 over his face and head and other parts of the body and attempted to commit his murder. Immediately, P. W. 9-Ninganna and p. W. 5-Vidya, P. W. 6-Joseph and other 3 or 4 persons rushed to the spot. By that time, P. W. 13-Venkatasubbaiah had suffered bleeding injuries. Immediately on coming to know of the incident, the son of P. W. 13-Venkatasubbaiah namely, M. V. Krishna-P. W. 1 rushed to the spot, took his injured father in an autorickshaw to Kamakshi Hospital for treatment. Then he went to the Saraswathipuram Police Station and lodged a complaint-Ex. P. 1 with the Sub-Inspector Sreenivasa Rao-P. W. 17. On the complaint of P. W. 1-Krishna, P. W. 17-Sub-Inspector registered a case in Crime No. 61 of 1993 for the offences under Sections 341, 324 and 307 of the IPC, prepared F. I. R. as per Ex. P. 9 and forwarded the same to the Magistrate Court. The injured was treated at kamakshi Hospital by Dr. K. S. Nayak-P. W. 12, Dr. Pundalika herale-P. W. 10 and was also examined by Dr. J. S. Heggade-P. W. 11 and provided timely treatment. The accused on seeing the gathering of the people, climbed a coconut tree with the weapon M. O. 3-Machchu and stayed there for more than 20 hours. It is only on arrival of the Cine star Ambarish, the accused came down. Then the Sub-Inspector-P. W. 17 arrested the accused. In the meanwhile, the P. S. I.-P. W. 17 prepared the spot mahazar as per Ex. P. 2 and seized the luna, wrist watch, chain of p. W. 13-M. O. 2 and the bloodstained hair of P. W. 13-M. O. 3. The I. O. recorded statement of the witnesses, collected the medical certificate and seized the bloodstained clothes of the injured-P. W. 13 as at M. Os. 5 to 8 and also seized the clothes of the accused M. O. 9-Shirt and the machchu-M. O. 3 under the Mahazar-Ex. P. 5. After completion of the investigation, the I. O. filed charge-sheet against the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 341 and 307 of the IPC. The learned c. J. M. , committed the case of the accused to the Court of Sessions judge.
(3.) THE learned Sessions Judge secured the presence of the accused, framed charges for the offences under Sections 341 and 307 of the IPC. The accused pleaded not guilty and sought to be tried. While the trial was in progress, the Counsel for the accused filed an application under section 329 of the Cr. P. C. for examination of the accused by a Doctor to ascertain his mental condition. That application was rejected. Subsequently, one more application was filed on the same ground, which also came to be rejected. Later, when the accused appeared nakedly before the Court, he was taken into custody and directed the Jail authorities to refer the accused for medical examination at Mental hospital, Bangalore. After examining the accused, it revealed that the accused was being treated for schizophrenia during the year 1989 and was an in-patient in Mental Hospital from 17-4-1989 to 2-5-1989. Aftetreatment, he was discharged with an advice to continue the medication and also to take tablets. When the accused was referred to mental hospital, he remained there as an in-patient from 9-7-1998 to 12-8-1998 and issued the certificate as per Ex. P. 13, which revealed that the accused was found suffering from schizophrenia.;