Karnataka court awards three years rigorous imprisonment to man for chopping off tribal man's fingers

Mangaluru: The first additional district and sessions court has convicted four persons for chopping off fingers of Sundar Malekudiya, belonging to a tribal community, with a weed-clearing machine while abusing him verbally, issuing threats to him and splashing chilly powder at him.

The convicted are Gopal Gowda (67), his wife Pushpalatha (41), his sister A Damayanthi (71), and her car driver Vasanth Gowda alias Ramanna Gowda (34).

Public Prosecutor Judith Olga Margaret said the incident had occurred on July 26, 2015 when Sundar Malekudiya along with his wife Revathi, children Poornesh and Poornima were mowing grass on a piece of land belonging to them.

Judge Mallikarjuna Swamy H S sentenced prime accused Gopal Gowda alias Gopalakrishna Gowda (67) to three years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 326 and 34 of IPC and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

In case he is unable to pay the fine, he will have to undergo six months of simple imprisonment. Damayanthi, Vasanth and Pushpalatha have been sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment under section 326 and 34 of IPC and slapped a fine of Rs 15,000 each. If they fail to pay a fine, they will have to undergo three months of simple imprisonment.

All four have been sentenced to six months of simple imprisonment under section 506 of IPC. The court also directed to pay Rs 1.45 lakh collected as fine to the victim Sundar Malekudiya. It also directed the Legal Services Authority to pay compensation under Santhrastara Parihara Yojane (victims compensation scheme).

The court had examined 29 witnesses and marked 52 documents.

Dr Namrat Banu and Dinesh Kadam of Wenlock Hospital testified the severe damage caused to Malekudiya's hands. Dr Shahnaz Fathima of Forensic Lab had testified that the chopped finger recovered from the crime spot belonged to Malekudiya.