B. N. Agrawal, J. - (1.)The two appellants, namely, Samikannu and Krishnan, along with accused Nos. 3-Koonan alias Manikandan and 5-Ayyakkannu were convicted by the trial Court under S. 302 read with S. 34 of the Penal Code and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. The appellants were further convicted under Ss. 148 and 324 read with S. 34 of the Penal Code and each of them was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and two years respectively for the aforesaid offences. The sentences were, however, directed to run concurrently. The other six accused persons, namely, Senthilkumar (A-2, Manickam (A-4, Thangavelu (A-6, Palanlmuthu (A-8, Thangavelu (A-9) and Naladi (A-10) were convicted under Ss. 302/149 of the Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. Accused No. 2 was further convicted under S. 323 of the Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. Accused No. 11 was acquitted by the trial Court. On appeal being preferred by all the convicted accused persons, conviction and sentence of the appellants herein under S. 302 read with S. 34 of the Penal Code have been confirmed by the High Court whereas their convictions and sentences under S. 148 and S. 324 read with S. 34 of the Penal Code have been set aside. So far as accused No. 2 is concerned, his conviction under S. 323 of the Penal Code has been confirmed. However, the conviction and sentence of this accused under Ss. 302/149 has been set aside. So far as the other accused persons are concerned, they have been acquitted of all the charges levelled against them by the High Court.
(2.)The prosecution ease is that on 4-2-1988 at about 11 p.m. when P.W. 1 Thirumathi Sundarambal, P.W. 3 Venkatasamy, P.W. 4 Govindaraj and Kuppusamy were in their field hut in village Govindapalayam they heard alarm being raised by P.W. 5 Sekar, P.W. 6 Durai and two others who had gone to work in the field belonging to the family of P.W. 1. Upon hearing the same, Kuppusamy along with P.Ws. 1, 3 and 4 proceeded to the field where P.Ws. 5 and 6 were working and when they were crossing through the field of one Janakiramam Chettiar they were waylaid by the accused persons, including the appellants. A-5 is said to have inflicted a stab injury with knife on the head of Kuppusamy while appellant No. 2 stabbed Kuppusamy with a bill hook. At that time A-1 and A-3 assaulted Kuppusamy with iron roads and thereafter accused Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 assaulted him with sticks as a result of which he fell down on the ground and succumbed to the injuries. In the same transaction, P.W. 3 was assaulted by accused Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 with their respective weapons and P.W. 4 was assaulted by accused Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 11. When P.W. 1 came near the injured persons, the accused persons fled away. P.W. 1 along with wife of P.W. 3 and her sister-in-law took the injured persons to the hut belonging to P.W. 7, who was working in the field of Janakiramam Chettiar. When they were sitting in front of the hut of P.W. 7, P.Ws. 5 and 6 came there with injured and all of them remained in the hut of P.W. 7 during night. As P.W. 1 was scared during night, she went to P.W. 11 Village Administrative Officer in the next morning at 8 O'clock and narrated the incident to him who recorded her statement which was forwarded to the concerned police station on the basis of which First Information Report was drawn up on the same day at 9.45 a.m. against the 11 accused persons.
(3.)The police after registering the case took up investigation and on completion thereof submitted charge-sheet against all the 11 accused persons on receipt whereof cognizance was taken and the accused persons were committed to the Court of Session to face trial.