Hyderabad: A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court held that while convicting a person “the circumstances should be such that they exclude every possible hypothesis except the one to be proved. It has been held that there must be a chain of evidence so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused and must show that in all human probabilities, the act must have been done by the accused.” Applying the theory, the panel refused to set aside the life imprisonment awarded to Malisetty Bhanu Kiran in the murder of Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy, alias Suri. The panel of Justice K. Lakshman and Justice Sree Sudha affirmed the sentence of the first additional metropolitan court and dismissed the appeal filed by Kiran. The victim was said to be a key figure in the murder of the then TD MLA Paritala Ravi. It was the case of the prosecution that the accused was shot dead at Yousufguda when they were traveling together in a car on January 3, 2011. The first additional metropolitan judge sentenced the accused under the IPC and the Arms Act and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000. Approximately, 92 witnesses were examined and 150 exhibits were placed before the court. The appellant pointed out that there was only one eyewitness to the incident, and he too had turned hostile. The plea of public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao was that even though a witness had turned hostile his evidence to the extent useful can be relied upon. The panel speaking through Justice Lakshman dealt with the forensic evidence and the evidence on record and found no reason to interfere with the conviction.
“With regard to enmity between the deceased and accused No.1 and motive to commit the murder of the deceased by the accused, it is apt to note that there were disputes between them with regard to settlements and financial matters and the deceased abusing Accused No. 1 in filthy language… Thus, accused No. 1 bore a grudge on the deceased and developed a motive to commit murder. On consideration of the legal and acceptable evidence, the trial court gave a finding that the prosecution has proved the motive beyond reasonable doubt, and there is no error in it.” The panel also accepted the last-seen theory stated by the prosecution. The panel said that the trial court was justified in recording the conviction and accordingly dismissed the criminal appeal.
HC: Consider BRS plea for gag order
Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Friday directed the Union ministry of information and telecommunication to consider as expeditiously as it can the representation of BRS party seeking a gag order on allegations and discussions on social media and electronic media on the phone-tapping incident. As reported earlier, BRS secretary M. Sreenivas Reddy had filed a petition complaining that the party had represented to the powers that opposition parties were garnering political mileage and spreading unsustainable allegations against party working president K.T. Rama Rao and others. He said that the BRS had nothing to do with the phone-tapping incident but oblique and direct references without basis were being made. He said this violated the model code of conduct.
