TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2009 (8) TMI 1250
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....ateswarlu, one of the accused (A.6). At about 7.00 a.m. the deceased was standing along with PW.1 his nephew, Soodidela Bapireddy, 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. On receipt of the injuries the deceased fell to the ground. The accident was witnessed by PW.1 and in addition by PW.5- Pambha Soubhagy....
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....suffered. On the completion of the investigation all the accused were charged under Section 148 of the IPC, A1 to A3 were charged under Section 302 of the IPC and the others under Section 302 read with 149 IPC and under Section 324 of the IPC. They all pleaded not guilty and were brought to trial. 2. The prosecution, in support of its case, placed reliance on several witnesses but we are at this stage concerned primarily with the evidence of PW.1 and PW.5 the two eye witnesses. On completion of the prosecution evidence the statements of the accused were recorded under Section 313 of the Cr.P.C. They pleaded false implication. Some documents in evidence were also tendered by the accused. 3. The trial Court in its judgment dated 5/9/2003 he....
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....ence; that the presence of the two witnesses had been fully explained and that the so called improvements and inconsistencies referred to by the trial Judge in the course of its lengthy judgment, were innocuous and did not go to the root of the matter and could, therefore, be ignored and having held so (and 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. 4. Mr. L.N.Rao, the learned senior counsel for the three appellants has first and foremost pointed out that the High Court was dealing with the matter as an appeal against acquittal and in the lig....
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....t at the time of incident and even in his statement under Section 161 Cr.P.C. this fact had been noted. 6. We have considered the arguments advanced and heard the matter at great length. It is true, as contended by Mr. Rao, that interference in an appeal against an acquittal recorded by the trial Court should be rare and in exceptional circumstances. It is, however, well settled by now that it is open to the High Court to re-appraise the evidence and conclusions drawn by the trial Court but only in a case when the judgment of the trial Court is stated to be perverse. The word `perverse' in terms as understood in law has been defined to mean "against the weight of evidence". We have to see accordingly as to whether the judgment of the t....
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....court and we believe that had there been any motive to implicate any body on the basis of party affiliations, the main role in the entire incident would have been ascribed to A.6 who was the rival candidate. On the contrary A.6 has been given a very minor role in the entire incident and this was one of factors that had let to his acquittal by the trial Court and the confirmation of that order by the High Court as well. 7. Great emphasis has been laid by Mr. Rao in the apparent discordance between the medical and the ocular evidence. We reproduce herein the injuries found on the dead body: 1. Incised injury 2" x 1/2" on lower border of left color bone, extending downwards, backwards obliquely in the mid clavicular bone, through II inter c....
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....ral 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 af....