Case: Vemireddy Satyanarayan Reddy &amp; Others Vs. State of Hyderabad

3. The facts of the occurrence, as alleged by the prosecution, are these. On the evening of 19-1-1949, the deceased Venkatakrishan Shastry of the village of Maturpeta and five other persons, who were Congress workers like, him, were returning to the village from a tank. One of the communist leaders called Nagabhushan Rao had been arrested a month or two previously and the communist party believed that Venkatakrishna Shastry was responsible for the arrest. So a large group of communists, about 25 or 30 in number including the accused, armed with guns and swords, paid a visit to Maturpeta to wreak vengeance against the Congress group led by Venkatakrishbnaran into the Congress group as they were getting back to the village after the evening stroll. P. W. 14, a dhobi boy named Gopai, was one of the camp followers of this communist group. Venkatakrishna Shastry and his co-workers were tied up with their own clothes and were led to the village  chavadi over which a Congress flag was flying. A rope was brought from the house of P. W. 17 and the members of the Congress group were tied with this rope and led some distance away from the village to a red-gram field, and all of them were beaten by their enemies ; except Shastry, the rest were driven away from thewas tied with the rope and taken in the eastern direction by Mangapaty (the dalam or group leader) and the accused. P. W. 14 was following the group carrying a bundle of their clothes on his head. After a short halt at the village of Suknevedu, where some food was taken, the party went towards a mango-tope near a brook, four of five miles away leading Venkatakrishna Shastry as thedeceased, Gopai (P. W. 14) and some of the accused remained on the bank of the brooklet. The others went a little beyond and one of them came back with orders that Venkatakrishna Shastry should be fetched, Venkatakrishna Shastry was taken along and when the moon was at the meridian, the rope with which he was led was tied round the neck of the deceased into aof the accused pulled one end of the rope and two others at the other end in opposite directions. Venkatakrishan Shashtry was thus strangled to death. A pit was dug and the body of the Venkatakrishna Shastry was buried in the river-bed. P. W. 14 saw all this from a distance of twenty yards in clear moonlight.4. Two or three days later after, some wanderings in the jungle and mountain -dens P. W. 14 left the company of his masters who were implored by the boys father P. W. 7 to permit him to take the boy away.5. Next morning a report was sent by P. W. 2 the police patel about the abduction of Venkatakrishna Shastry and investigation was begun. On 8-2-1949, that is about twenty days after the occurrence, some bones of a human body were discovered in the river-bed as the result of crows and vultures hovering round thePolice Patwari (P. W. 10) sent a report about this discovery. The police arrived on the scene and exhumed the body which was identified as that of Venkatakrishna Shastry. This was on 9-2-194

Court's reasoning:
There is, however, no warrant for such an extreme proposition.Indeed, there can be no doubt that the evidence of a man like P. W. 14 should be scanned with much caution and we must be fully satisfied that he is a witness of truth, especially when no other person was present at the time to see the murder. Though he was not an accomplice, we would still want corroboration on material particulars in this particular case, as he is the only witness to the crime and as, it would be unsafe to hang four people on his sole testimony unless we feel convinced that he is speaking thecorroboration need not, however, be on the question of the actual commission of the offence; if this was the requirement, then we would have independent testimony on which to act and there would be no need to rely on the evidence of one whose position may, in this particular case, be said to be somewhat analogous to that of an accomplice, though not exactly the same. What the law requires is that there should be such corroboration of the material part of the story connecting the accused with the crime as will satisfy reasonable minds that the man can be regarded as a truthful witness.Judged by this test, we can say that the evidence given by P. W. 14 has been amply corroborated. It was not disputed for the appellants that there is abundant evidence consisting of the testimony of several witnesses in support of the truth of the narrative given by P. W. 14 regarding the abduction of thefactors are, however, overlooked in this argument. Though the body was in an advanced state of decomposition and many parts of the limbs were missing and even the flesh in the face was gone, it would not have been difficult for close associates of Venkatakrishna Shastry to say that it was his corpse, from the general features, form, outline, contour build of the body, and the appearance of such of the limbs as were available tofriend Madhusudhana Rao, P. W. 15, was working with the deceased for some years in the Congress office and knew him well indeed. There is his evidence about identification. More important still is the identification of the rope round the neck of the body, the dhoti with the violet border that was on its waist, and the janjam or the holy thread. The rope was brought from the house of Brahma Reedy (P. W. 17). It was the one which was tied in loops round each member of the congress group as they were led from the village to the redgram field; it was the rope that was used to lead Venkatakrishna Shastry to the booklet; and it was the rope that was found round the neck of the dead body when it wasbordered dhoti which was on the corpse belonged to Venkatakrishna Shastry. From these external marks, and the general features, friends of the deceased like P. Ws.3 to 6 and 9 and P. W. 17 in whose house Shastry was living could say, we think, that the body buried in the waist-deep pit in the bed of the river was that of Venkatakrishna Shastry.14. Whether he is regarded as an accomplice or as the sole witness of the offence P. W. 14 has been corroborated in such a manner that his evidence about the step taken by the accused immediately prior to the perpetration of the murder carries conviction to our minds. The connection of the accused with the crime must be held to have been made out. We have also to accept that the dead body recovered was that of Venkatakrishna Shastry and no question of the absence of the body arises.15. For this gruesome and revolting murder the appellants have got only imprisonment for life for which they must be thankful to the difference of opinion that arose among the learned Judges of the High Court.