Four of six acquitted by trial court found guilty by HC

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: Overturning the order of acquittal of a Trial Court, the High Court of Karnataka found four of the six accused guilty of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

The judgement by the division bench of Justice HP Sandesh and Justice Ramachandra D Huddar came in an appeal filed by the State challenging the acquittal.

“We have also listed out the chain of circumstances above, in order to arrive at a conclusion that accused Nos.1 to 4 have committed murder and chain link is complete and the Court can draw the inference that the accused persons themselves have committed the murder of the deceased and the same has been cogently and firmly established and there is a conclusive evidence unerringly pointing towards guilt of the accused Nos.1 to 4,” the HC said convicting Veerupakshagouda, Tulasareddi, Ningappa and Neelavva which acquitting Basavaraj and Dandevva.

The HC found that the evidence proved that the property dispute was the reason for the murder.

The deceased had obtained a stay order on a property dispute on 07.12.2011 and he went missing on 11.12.2011 within a span of 4 days of granting of stay.

Subsequently, the said property was sold within a span of Martandagouda going missing on 16.12.2011 inspite of stay order.

“Inference can be drawn that accused No.1 (Virupakshagouda) hatched a plan to eliminate him to sell the property,” the HC said.

The deceased was one Martandagouda who went missing on December 11, 2011. His son Linganagouda, filed a police complaint and fingers pointed at Virupakshagouda, the cousin of Martandagouda who was allegedly trying to sell off family property.

Accused number two Tulasareddi was a friend of Virupakshagouda while accused number three Ningappa was a tenant in the land. Accused number four Neelavaa was allegedly in a relationship with Martandagouda.

Accused numbers five and six, Basavaraja and Dandevva were allegedly in an illicit relationship and the deceased Martandagouda was also eying Dandevva.

This was opposed by Neelavva and Basavaraj. Allegedly Virupakshagouda had conspired with the others who all had grudges against Martandagouda to get rid of him.

The Additional District and sessions in Court in Gadag in its judgement in March 2019 acquitted all the accused citing lack of evidence. The HC however found the evidence pointing at the four accused.

The body of the deceased was recovered at the instance of the four. The witness of the sister and brother-in-law of Virupakshagouda who stated that he had a motive for the murder “cannot be discredited,” the HC said.

However, Basavaraja and Dandevva were acquitted. “Except the accusation against accused Nos.5 and 6, no other material is found with regard to conclusive proof against them,” the HC said. (CrlA 100190/2019)