K.A.Kotrappa Reddy & Anr vs Rayara M.Redd@ N.R.Manjunatha & Ors

2. The brief facts necessary to dispose of these appeals are that on 13.09.2005 at about 10:30 A.M., one Ajjanna Reddy (deceased), who was the President of Nandigavi Village Panchayat in Harihara Taluk, District Davangere, Karnataka, was monitoring execution of the road repair work in front of Ishwar Temple situated near the house of accused Nos.1 to 4. Accused No.6 objected to the same as the said repair would reduce the area of the front yard of his house. The accused persons picked up quarrel with Ajjanna Reddy and asked him to stop the work which he refused to do so. It is alleged that the accused persons, who were 12 in number, formed an unlawful assembly carrying dangerous weapons, abused and beat the deceased at about 12:30 P.M. and soon, about 50 odd people gathered at the place of occurrence and there was a chaos. PW1, PW2 and PW5 came to rescue the deceased but they were also thrashed. Further, the accused left the scene, the deceased was taken to Davangere Hospital where he was declared brought dead at 2:30 PM. PW1 went to lodge the FIR at about 6:30 P.M. at Malebennur Police Station against 11 accused persons and one Siddappa (not accused herein).

4. The Trial Court by its judgment and order convicted the accused Nos. 1 to 9 for the offences punishable under Section 143, 148 and 302 read with 149 IPC. Accused No. 10 was found to be guilty of the offence punishable under Section 114 read with 302 IPC. Accused Nos.2, 4 and 9 were also convicted for the offence punishable under Section 324 IPC. The convictions were based on the evidences of the eye witnesses, which included two injured witnesses, and the recovery of weapons used further corroborated by the extra-judicial confession made to PW14 (B.M. Halaswamy) and the motive being established. However, the Trial Court gave benefit of doubt to accused Nos.11 and 12 and acquitted them of all the charges. Accused Nos.1 to 9 challenged their order of conviction by filing Criminal Appeal No.829 of 2007, accused No.10 separately challenged his conviction order by filing Criminal Appeal No.790 of 2007 before the High Court and the State also filed Criminal Appeal No.1408 of 2007 against the acquittal of accused Nos.11 and 12. The High Court by the impugned judgment and order allowed the first two appeals and dismissed the third appeal filed by the State, on the ground that the prosecution failed to bring home the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt and as such, they were entitled for benefit of doubt. The acquittal was based on ground that there was delay in filing the FIR and the eye witnesses who were relied upon by the Trial Court were interested and partisan witnesses. The motive was also not clearly established since there was no proof of any repair work in front of the house of the accused and it was proved on record that the accused never contested any election against the deceased.

10. The third issue is the delay in lodging the FIR. Not only the FIR was delayed but there was delay in sending the seized articles to FSL and in writing the post-mortem report also. Initially a verbal exchange took place at 10:30 A.M., which led to a major attack at about 12:30 P.M. Consequently the deceased was severely injured. The deceased was first taken to Harihar where the doctor, without any paperwork, referred him to some big hospital. The deceased was then brought at City Central Hospital in Davangere where he was declared as dead before arrival at about 2:30 P.M. The dead body was then taken for post-mortem at Chigatiri General Hospital in Davangere. The FIR was lodged at Malebennur at 6:30 P.M. Despite police stations at Davangere and Harihar, which were closer, the informant went to lodge the FIR at Malebennur Police Station, which was around 16 Kms. from the place of incident. The only explanation the informant gave was that they were under shock due to the brutal attack, which is not explanatory in view of the distance and time taken. Also, looking at the previous enmity and earlier litigations between the parties, the time taken is good enough to cast a doubt upon the entire event. Further, it has been revealed from the depositions that a crowd had gathered in front of the Chigatiri General Hospital on receiving the news that the Chairman of the Village Panchayat was dead. To cater to the law and order situation, many police personnel headed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police were present at the hospital. However, non-action on the news of a homicidal death on behalf of the police officer casts doubt on the role of the informant in connivance with the police officer.

14. Thus, in the light of the above discussion, we find no compelling and substantial reasons to interfere with the judgment passed by the High Court. The appeals are, accordingly, dismissed.

…....................................J (Pinaki Chandra Ghose) …...................................J (R.K. Agrawal) New Delhi;

October 15, 2015