Hyderabad High Court confirms life sentence on 2 convicts
The court noted that there was no eyewitness and the case depended on circumstantial evidence.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has confirmed the life sentence awarded by the additional sessions judge, Khammam, in Telangana state and sessions judge in Ongole, AP, in two separate murders.
A division bench comprising Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice M. Satyanarayana Murti confirmed the life sentences in a case involving Neram Chinnabbai of Ongole for killing one Illa Somi Reddy, in Dubagunta of the Prakasam district and injuring two others.
The court also upheld the life sentence awarded to three convicts — Boddu Srinivasa Rao, Thamalampudi Venkata Reddy and Gottam Yakub Reddy — for killing lorry driver Saleem in Khammam district.
Srinivasa Rao, a lorry cleaner, killed Saleem with the help of the two others while they were returning from Ankapal-em in 2009 following a financial dispute. The body was abandoned in the Ankapalem forest of Khammam district.
The court noted that there was no eyewitness and the case depended on circumstantial evidence. The bench held that merely on account of lapses of the police officer and the defects in conducting investigation, the prosecution case cannot be thrown out.
The bench ruled that when there are independent witnesses, who had no reason to speak against the accused, it is convincing and does not admit any doubt. The bench held that when an unbroken chain of circumstances unerringly points to the complicity of the acc-used, they cannot be let free.
In the case of Neram Chinnabbai of Ongole, the bench noted that the prosecution produced four eyewitnesses, of whom two sustained injuries allegedly at the hands of the accused in the course of the attack which resulted in the death of Somi Reddy.
Counsel for the accused said there were discrepancies in the evidence of the eyewitness; particularly, the wife of the victim had given two versions — she said at one point that she hid behind the weigh bridge and at another time she said she had gone behind her hut to hide. Ruling out that the contention of the counsel, the bench said even if the evidence of the witness was discarded, the evidence of the other eyewitnesses was more than adequate. Other witnesses stated that the accused had hacked Somi Reddy when he went to make a phone call at the weigh bridge office.