Case: A.N. Venkatesh  Vs. State Of Karnataka

been made. PW-13 has deposed that he was running an STD telephone booth at B.H. Road, Arasikere. On 20.5.96 A! and A2 had come to his telephone booth at about 2.30 P.M. and had telephoned to one telephone no.80347 at Hosadurga, which was later on corrected by him to be the telephone no.80537 on STD code no.08199, which is the STD code of Hosadurga. He has charged the bill of Rs.36.13 p. and the entry to that effect was made in his book. The book in which the entry has been made is not with him since he had disposed it off along with some newspapers. After the call was made he had asked for the bill amount and the accused informed him that they do not possess money and thus unable to pay. He insisted for payment. Thereafter, A-1 went to fetch the amount and he made A-2 to sit in his booth. As he was busy with another customer, he asked his neighbour, a cycle shop owner, Krishnamurthy (PW-14) to keep a watch over A-2 and at that time A-2 removed his shoes and threw them towards Krishnamurthy. PW-14 gave two slaps to A-2. Thereafter, A1 proceeded towards the house of SBM Cashier. A1 called out Wasim , S/o SBM Cashier and the amount was later on paid by Wasim. It has also come in evidence that Xerox copies of the book maintained by PW-13 was taken by the investigating officer and tried to be produced as an evidence. The sessions court did not permit the same as a secondary evidence and the matter got rested at that. The statement of this witness is corroborated by PW-14 who held a nearby cycle shop and who has said in his deposition before the court that both A1 and A2 on 20.5.96 came to the telephone booth approximately at 2.30 P.M. and he was in his cycle shop. There was some commotion on account of non-payment of the telephone bill by A1 and A2 and, therefore, he went near the telephone booth and heard A-1 and A-2 saying that they had telephoned to Hosadurga but they do not have money to pay. When he asked them why they are not paying the amount, A-2 threw a shoe towards him which landed on his right leg and he retaliated by giving one slap to A-2. Thereafter, A1 approached SBM Cashier and the cashiers son came and gave the phone bill amount to PW-13. The accused persons left the place and went towards the bus stand. On 20.5.96 the police officer of Hosadurga had brought both A1 and A2 and shown them to him and he identified them as the same persons who had made the call from the STD booth. The statement of these witnesses establishes that about 2.30 P.M. A-1 and A-2 came to the STD booth of PW-13 and thereafter an STD call was made to Hosadurga. This is corroborated by the evidence of PW-1, Thimmanna, one of the uncles of the deceased that he received the telephone call on telephone no.80537 on 20.5.96 at about 3.00 P.M. This is supported by the evidence of another uncle PW-2 MK Prakash who said that his brother Thimmanna received a call and told him that somebody from Arasikere had telephoned informing that they had kidnapped the boy and are demanding an amount of Rs.50,000/- to release the boy. The amount is to be paid by throwing it by the side of the railway track in between Arasikere and Beerur. Immediate lodging of the complaint at the police station at about 3.00 P.M. on 20.5.96 by PW-1 informing about the ransom demand made on the telephone, completely establishes that the telephone call was made at about 2.30 P.M. on 20.5.96 demanding the ransom amount. The statement of these witnesses clearly establishes that the accused appellants have made the STD call on 20.5.96 demanding ransom amount claiming that they have custody of Madhu. 13. Various circumstances in the chain of events established, ruled out the reasonable likelihood of innocence of the accused. The prosecution has been able to establish that a complaint was lodged with the police of Madhu missing from the house, after frantic search was made by the family members to find out his whereabouts. The ransom demand was made by the accused appellants from the STD booth of PW-13 over phone which was received by PW-1 and immediately thereafter complaint was made in the police station. The police party was dispatched to Arasikere to apprehend the persons who had telephoned. The accused appellants were arrested from a nearby place where the ransom demand was to be met. There is no apparent reason for the accused appellants to be present at the spot where they were arrested which is far away from the place of their residence, except for the purpose of materializing the demand made by them. The accused persons were taken to the police station of Hosadurga at about 10.00 P.M. Soon thereafter, in the morning they have taken the police party along with the family members of the deceased to the river bed of Vedavati river and on their pointing out a particular spot, the body was exhumed. Before the dead body was found they were seen in the company of the deceased nearby the place from where the dead body was exhumed. Above circumstances cumulatively taken together lead to the only irresistible conclusion that the accused appellants alone are the perpetrators of the crime. Each and every incriminating circumstance has been established by reliable and clinching evidence and we have reached to an irresistible conclusion that inference can be drawn from proved circumstances that the accused appellants were involved in the crime and are guilty. We do not find any infirmity in the judgment of the High Court and appreciation of the evidence led by the prosecution by it and the inference drawn there from. The acquittal by the trial court was rightly held to be unjustified.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]The argument of the learned counsel is built upon the premises that the complainant party had decided to pay the ransom and to follow the instructions of payment of ransom amount by throwing it at the identified spot from the train. We have already discussed the evidence of the witnesses from where we find that the complainant party and the police have already decided not to pay the ransom amount but to apprehend the accused persons at the spot indicated by them for payment of amount. When the decision was taken there was no reason at all, to travel by train and follow the instructions. The course adopted by the complainants and the police party by travelling in a vehicle was in conformity with the decision taken by the police party and the complainant, was in natural course of conduct.Each and every incriminating circumstance has been established by reliable and clinching evidence and we have reached to an irresistible conclusion that inference can be drawn from proved circumstances that the accused appellants were involved in the crime and are guilty. We do not find any infirmity in the judgment of the High Court and appreciation of the evidence led by the prosecution by it and the inference drawn there from. The acquittal by the trial court was rightly held to be unjustified.