Sri.Vijikumar P v. Sri.Chandrappa
Case brief
What is this about?
Karnataka High Court, Bengaluru; CRL.A No. 2202 of 2024; decided 13.03.2026; coram Mohammad Nawaz and Venkatesh Naik T; victim's appeal under Section 372 Cr.P.C. against acquittal in S.C.No.135/2022 (Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kolar, acquittal dated 05.09.2024) for murder under Section 302 r/w 34 IPC of Sounder Raj (13.08.2022, Malur Taluk, machete MO3); hostile eyewitnesses PWs.2 and PW.3; recovery of weapon at instance of accused No.1 held insufficient; temple-dispute motive of 08.04.2022 unproved beyond PW1; double presumption of innocence/reinforced acquittal standard; precedents relied on: Chandrappa (2007) 4 SCC 415, Sudershan Kumar (2014) 15 SCC 666, Jafarudheen (2022) 8 SCC 440, Ravi Sharma (2022) 8 SCC 536, Roopwanti AIR 2023 SC 1199; result: appeal dismissed, acquittal sustained.
What did the court decide?
None; the acquittal of accused Nos.1 to 3 was left undisturbed.