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2009 (8) TMI 1250 - SC - Indian LawsMurder - Offence Punishable u/s 302 r/w 149 IPC and 324 of IPC - Two of the candidates contesting the election were the deceased - weight of evidence - the deceased was standing along with PW.1 his nephew in front of the polling station, when all the accused, 20 in number, armed with lethal weapons such as axes, knives, sticks and stones attacked him. A.1 Kotesswara caught hold of the deceased by his hair and gave two blows with a stone on his forehead and also stabbed him with a knife on his chest, A.2 Hanumantha Rao and A.3 Krishniah who were both armed with axes caused injuries on the back of the head of the deceased where after A.1 again stabbed the deceased on his shoulder. All the accused were charged u/s 148 - A1 to A3 were charged u/s 302 - the others u/s 302 r/w 149 IPC and u/s 324 by the trail court - The Trail Court found that the evidence with regard to the accused other than A.1 to A.3 was even more unacceptable and, having held as above, acquitted all the accused. The State thereupon took the matter to the High court in appeal. The High Court held that calling the judgment of the trial Court qua A.1 to A.3 as perverse, partly allowed the appeal and convicted them but confirmed the judgment of the trial Court with respect to the other accused. A.1 to A.3 are before us by way of special leave. HELD THAT:- A perusal of the injuries would reveal that injury No. 1 has been caused by A.1, Injury No. 2 either by A.2 or A.3, Injury No. 3 by A.1, Injury Nos. 4 and 5 by A.1 with a stone and there are three or four additional injuries (on which emphasis has been laid by Mr. Rao) as they remain unexplained. Even assuming, however, that three injuries out of eight are unexplained, this one circumstance alone would not destroy the flow of the other evidence. It is clear that the incident had happened in the course of the Mandal Parishad Elections with several people being involved and a large group of spectators being present at the spot. In this scenario we feel that it would have been well nigh impossible for any witness to have given a mathematical or precise description of all the injuries that had been caused and that too in a melee. The fact remains that the injuries found on the dead body correspond fully with the weapons that had been used. As a matter of fact injury Nos. 4 and 5 which appeared to be inflicted with a stone allegedly in the hands of A.1 clearly prove the veracity of the story as it would have been inconceivable for a witness to have imagined that a stone, (a very unusual weapon for a pre-planned attack) would be used as A.1 was also armed with a knife which he used after the injury had been caused with a stone. We are thus of the opinion that the medical evidence does not in any way contradict the ocular evidence. As gone through the so called improvements/inconsistencies in the statements given by PW.1 and PW.5 to the police vis-a-vis their statements in court. It must be emphasized that the incident happened in the year 1995 whereas the evidence was recorded after about 8 years. Some discrepancies are, therefore, bound to occur. The question to be noted is as to whether the discrepancies or improvements are such which go to the root of the matter and affect veracity of the prosecution's story. We are of the opinion that the evidence herein does not fall within this slippery category. It is clear from the FIR recorded by PW.1 and his statement in Court that PW.5 had been present at the time of the incident. The other discrepancies that have been pointed out are to no avail keeping in view the over all picture. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the High Court was fully justified in interfering in the matter and was well within its jurisdiction to do so, even in the light of the judgments cited by Mr. Rao. The appeals are, accordingly, dismissed.
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