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1. A bizarre incident that shook the State in general and the student community in particular occurred on 21 -6-2004 when the sun was blazing in the mid-sky, in a temple of education run after the name of the Goddess of Knowledge at Vijayawada 'Sharada P.G. College.' The scene of offence was a class room (Room No. 2 of the said college), where the final year M.C.A. students facing viva voce examination were waiting for their turn. A final year M.C.A. girl student by name Sri Lakshmi, who had to face viva voce test, when she was fully absorbed in reading, sitting on a Bench in the said class room, was brutally hacked to death from behind. This astoundingly gruesome act was committed in the very presence of the classmates of the victim. The appellant herein, one Y. Manohar (A.1), a classmate of the victim girl is the alleged perpetrator of the shocking crime. He faced trial as A. 1 in Sessions Case No. 209 of 2004, on the file of the Sessions Judge, Mahila Court, Vijayawada and was convicted for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and ordered to be hanged to death.

34. Having culled out all the facts and present a holistic and complete picture of the case, we shall now take up appreciation of evidence with reference to the points urged by the learned Counsel for the accused.

35. P.Ws. 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 are the examinees waiting for their turn in room No. 2 and they witnessed the occurrence. If their evidence is found to be credible and trustworthy, the other circumstantial evidence of P.Ws. 2, 11, 13 and others noticing the presence of the accused in the college campus and the evidence of P.Ws. 2, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 15 noticing the accused coming out of the room No. 2 with knife in fact fades into insignificance. We have already pointed out the places where the eye-witnesses were sitting in class room No. 2. After entering room No. 2, the accused went behind Sri Lakshmi, who was looking into the record or books bending forward, hacked her on her head with M.O. 1 shouting aloud. This is the unanimous core testimony that has emanated from their evidence. Shouting aloud while hacking had attracted their attention and they happened to see the brutal hacking. They got terrified and ran helter-skelter. All the witnesses are youngsters endowed with keen perception, memory and observation faculty. There is no cross-examination practically that could undo their evidence. Of course, there may be variation in fringes. Majority of them stated that the accused went behind and hacked Sri Lakshmi. Only one or two stated that the accused went aside Sri Lakshmi and hacked her. Slight variation of expression would not matter much. It is rarely a person can picturize what he saw in a communicable language to the point of perfection. The perceptions differ, expression differ, but so long as the core of their testimony is unanimous, their evidence cannot be thrown out. They are not enemies of the accused to implicate him in a murder case. They are not addicted in speaking falsehood. In fact, they had not entered the threshold of real and practical life. They are innocent. Some of them are careerists. They gave a graphic account of the incident. The manner in which the commission of this offence took place, the place at which the offence was committed, the time it was committed, when tailored with their evidence goes to give rise to an inescapable conclusion that it is the accused alone that hacked the deceased-Sri Lakshmi to death. It is also not the contention of the learned Counsel Sri C. Padmanabha Reddy that the evidence of the eye-witnesses lacks consensus as to the substratum of the case. His attack is confined to peripherals.

2) THE EVIDENCE OF THE EYE-WITNESSES AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES FOUND AT THE SCENE OF OFFENCE :

a) Non-presence of blood on books :

40. We have already noted that the victim girl was looking into the books when the accused hacked her. The learned Counsel Mr. C. Padmanabha Reddy strenuously con- tends that no blood was found on the record books held by the girl. The learned counsel points out that in the observation report attested by P.W. 33 it is not noted that there are blood-stains on the books. The over-whelming evidence on record shows that the accused attacked the victim, who was sit-ting on the bench keeping her head down, from behind. The evidence of the doctor, P.W. 37, who conducted post-mortem examination over the dead body of the deceased, discloses that the deceased sustained 5 external injuries on the head. They are shown as injury Nos. 1 to 5 in the post-mortem report Ex. P.32. Injury Nos. 6 to 9 are the result of the above external injuries. It must be noted that all the injuries were caused on the head. The human scalp is covered by the skin only which contains very thin blood vessels. Unlike the injuries caused on the other parts of the body the injuries caused on the head will not result in profuse bleeding. There will not be flashing of blood. Exs. P.7, 8 and 10 photos taken at the mortuary by P.W. 23 clearly show that the injuries are caused by hacking. Exs. P. 11 to P. 17 are the photos taken by him at the scene of offence. The place where pool of blood is found is exposed in Ex. P. 17 more clearly. Ex. P. 13 shows a book on the table and there are no noticeable blood stains on it. It is evident that after (he attack, the girl has fallen aside, which would naturally result in blood staining of the floor of the class room, which the photos evidently demonstrate. This way, the non-presence of the blood on the books can be explained. Thus, we repel the contention of the learned Counsel.

b) Medical evidence vis-a-vis ocular evidence:

We see no force in the contention of the learned Counsel that the medical evidence does not run in conformity with the eye-witnesses. It is the categorical evidence of all the witnesses that the accused hacked on the head and in fact all the injuries are found on the head only by the doctor. Whether the injuries caused are oblique, vertical or horizontal depends on the mode in which the weapon was yield while hacking the victim. The seat of injury also depends on the movement of the head of the victim when she was hit and that is clearly fitting in this case.