KONDAGIRI DANGEYA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been preferred against the conviction and sentence to imprisonment for life on the appellant by the learned Sessions Judge, Koraput in C.T.Case No.196 of 2003.

(2.) The charge was for murder simplicitor. The prosecution case, in short, is that, on that fateful evening i.e. on 19.12.2002 at about 5 P.M., the appellant and the deceased were returning to the house of the latter after taking liquor from the village and on the way near the hut of P.W.3, they abused each other. Hearing the shout, P.W.3 came out from his hut and saw that the appellant assaulted the deceased on his head and face by a lathi he was holding. The appellant was also seen assaulting the deceased by pressing that lathi on different parts of the body of the deceased forcibly including his scrotum. The deceased fell down on the ground and died. The appellant then fled away. Said P.W.3 then disclosed the occurrence to the son of the deceased, the informant (P.W.2). He then lodged information in Bondhugaon police outpost under Narayanpatna Police Station on 20.12.2002, resulting registration of Narayanpatna P.S.Case No.111/21.12.2002. P.W.8, the then O.I.C. of Narayanpatna Police Station, took up investigation, held inquest over the dead body (Ext.1) and prepared a spot map (Ext.8). The appellant was arrested on 22.12.2002 and while in police custody, he gave recovery of weapons of offence i.e., lathi and two pieces of stones. The said lathi and stone pieces were sent for chemical examination and the report has been marked as Ext.14. Ultimately charge-sheet was submitted for commission of offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) In course of trial, the prosecution examined eight witnesses. The appellant as accused examined himself as the sole defence witness.