K. Ravi Kumar vs State Of Karnataka

4. Briefly stated, the incident that eventually culminated into the death of the appellant's wife, Padma and the consequent prosecution of the appellant/husband are as follows:

The appellant with his wife and son (Nandan) shifted to his parental house at Mandya, a nearby village and started living with his parents. After sometime, the appellant sent his wife to her parents' house for delivery where she gave birth to their second child, a son named 'Keerthan'. In the meantime, the appellant was transferred to Mysore, therefore, he shifted with his family (wife Padma and two sons) to a place called Kurubarahalli and started living there in house bearing No. 1326/A I St. Cross.

(b) On 11.8.2004, around 10.30-11.00 p.m., the appellant got a message that his old father, who was living at Mandya, was seriously ill. The appellant asked Padma to accompany him to leave for Mandya immediately to see his father's condition. However, Padma did not agree to leave immediately but said that they can go the next day. This issue led to heated exchange between them and eventually resulted in appellant loosing his mental balance to the extent that he first alleged to have stabbed Padma with knife and then poured Kerosene and set her on fire. The appellant then took his two minor sons and locked the house by leaving Padma in the house in injured condition and left for Mandya to see his ailing father. He gave Rs.20/- and Rs.10/- to his sons and told them not to disclose the incident to anyone, which they had noticed. After two days, the appellant with his sons returned from Mandya and, in an effort to make everyone believe that Padma was alone in the house, called the neighbours to open the door. The door lock was then opened with the help of skilled labour. The neighbours, Jvaramma and others, who lived near the house, entered the house with the appellant and found the burnt dead body of Padma. Someone informed the appellant's brother-in-law at Bangalore, that Padma has been taken to K.R. Hospital for treatment for the injuries sustained by her. On receiving the information, PW-2 (Lakshmi) - mother of Padma, rushed to Kurubarahalli along with her son, Raghu, and younger brother, Basavaraju. On reaching there, they saw the burnt dead body of Padma lying in the room. They made enquiry with the children, who were with the neighbours, as to what actually happened with their mother. Nandan - the elder son of the appellant narrated the entire incident. This led to lodging of the complaint (Ex-P-3) by Lakshmi -PW-2 to Nazarbad Police Station.

(c) S.G. Vijay Kumar- P.W-5 (Police Inspector) registered the complaint (Ex. P-3) against the appellant for the offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 498-A of the IPC and registered the FIR (Ex-P-5). He got the inquest done of the dead body as per (Ex-P-4), recorded the statements of the sons - Nandan and Keerthan, the neighbours - Ashok and Javaramma during inquest, and sent the dead body for post-mortem. He also prepared the scene of occurrence Panchnama as per (Ex-P-1), seized kerosene tin (M.O.-1), match box (M.O.-2) and burnt piece of nighty (M.O.-3) along with blood stained cloth.

(e) The appellant was explained of the charges against him, which he denied and claimed to undergo a trial. The prosecution examined seven witnesses (PW-1 to PW-7) and exhibited documents (Ex-P1 to P10) and seized articles (M.O.1 to M.O.3). The statement of the appellant under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was recorded, wherein he denied all material incriminatory statements in the evidence adduced by the prosecution.

(f) By judgment dated 01.02.2006, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Mysore held the appellant guilty of commission of offences punishable under Sections 302 and 498-A IPC for committing murder of his wife- Padma and the cruelty meted out to her and accordingly while convicting him directed to undergo sentence mentioned above which was to run concurrently.

15. In the light of the aforementioned reasons, which, in our opinion, emerge from the evidence on record, we are of the considered view that these reasons are sufficient to give benefit of Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC to the appellant and enables the Court to hold that the offence in question was not murder but it was an offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder as specified in Exception 4 to Section 300 and hence punishable under Section 304 part II IPC

16. In the result, we allow the appeal but only to the extent that instead of Section 302 IPC, the appellant shall stand convicted for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder punishable under Section 304 Part II IPC and accordingly sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years. The conviction and sentence imposed under Section 498-A as also the fine imposed upon the appellant and the default sentence awarded to him shall remain unaltered which shall run concurrently.

17. The appeal is accordingly disposed of in above terms in modification of the orders passed by the courts below.

November 28, 2014