Life imprisonment for man who drove tractor on two persons

The Trial Court had acquitted all the accused, but the High Court found the driver guilty of murder

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A person who drove a tractor on two persons, killing one and injuring the other, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the High Court of Karnataka. All the accused in the case were acquitted by the Trial Court but the High Court found the driver guilty of murder while acquitting the others.

The allegation was that on Mach 19, 2014 around 2.30 am in Halalli village in Aigali Police Station, Dharwad, Basalingappa, Ashok, Mahadev, Basappa, Raju, Girimalla, Sadashiv, Shivappa and Siddappa formed an unlawful assembly, assaulted and caused the death of one Malakayya aka Mallikarjuna and injuries to Kumar Panchayya Mathapati.

A tractor was allegedly dashed against the two. After the trial, the Sessions Court in its judgment dated August 2018 acquitted all the accused persons. Kumar Panchayya Mathapati filed an appeal in the High Court against this.

The Division Bench of Justice HB Prabhakara Sastry and Justice CM Joshi gave their judgment on the appeal recently. The HC said that the Trial Court has not appreciated the eyewitness evidence of Kumar Panchayya Mathapati and acquitted the accused No 1 Basalingappa Aigali.

“The learned Sessions Judge’s Court, without appreciating the evidence in their proper perspective and without attributing a detailed reasoning, has come to an opinion of disbelieving the evidence of the injured eye witness, in the commission of the crime and proceeded to pronounce the judgment of acquittal against all the accused, more particularly, accused No 1”.

The HC sentenced Basalingappa to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life for Section 302 (murder) and rigorous imprisonment for eight years under Section 307 (attempt to murder).

The other accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The HC, however, pointed out that it was the shoddy investigation that led to the acquittal of the other accused in the case. Therefore, it recommended action against the investigating officer in the case.

“Before concluding the judgment, we also wish to make an observation regarding the poor quality of investigation conducted by the investigating officer, ie, Sharanabasappa H Subedar, in this matter. The higher authorities to the investigating officer in the present case are required to look into the matter and take appropriate action in this regard,” the HC said.