- (1.) This appeal, under Section 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is against the order of the High Court of Madras reversing the acquittal of the appellants and convicting and sentencing each one of them under different Sections of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter shall be referred to as 'IPC'). All the accused persons have been convicted under Section 120 B of the IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years each. The accused appellants have also been found guilty under Section 302 of IPC for their individual acts or constructively under Section 34/149 IPC for commission of the said offence. They have been accordingly sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. Some of the appellants have also been found guilty of the offences under Section 148 and Section 332 read with Section 149 IPC for which sentence of rigorous imprisonment of three years have been imposed. Aggrieved the present appeal has been filed.
(2.) For the sake of clarity reference to the accused is hereinafter being made in the chronological order arranged in the proceedings of the trial and the three deceased, i.e., Veeraperumal, Karumpuli and Madaswamy are being referred to as D-1, D-2 and D-3 respectively. The case of the prosecution, in short, is that there was a land dispute between Karumpuli (D-2) and his family and A-1, Thirumani, and his party. There were civil litigations between the parties over the said property. According to the prosecution, on account of the aforesaid dispute, the younger brother of the accused No.15 was murdered and in the said case D-1, D-2 and D-3 were arrayed as accused. At the relevant point of time, the three deceased persons were on bail. There was another case pending against D-1 and D-2 in respect of an incident of a bomb attack on the rival party. In connection with the said case, the aforesaid two deceased who were arrested were brought to the court of the Judicial Magistrate, Vilathikulam on the day of the occurrence, i.e. 22.09.1991 for execution of the bail bonds etc. so as to enable them to be released on bail. Thiru Bagavati (PW- 1), Alagar (PW-2), Periyasami (PW-3) and Kalimuthu (PW-4) along with D-3 had come to meet D-1 and D-2 in the court complex. On the same day, A-14, A-15, and A-16 who were also under arrest in another case were brought by the police to the court complex for purpose of further remand. The other accused persons had come to see A-14, A-15, and A-16. Both the groups, including the deceased and the accused who were brought from jail, were engaged in their respective conversations. According to the prosecution, at a point of time between 2.00 p.m. and 3.00 p.m., A-14, A-15 and A-16 asked the other members of the accused party who had come to meet them to finish off D-1 and D-2. On being so instigated, according to the prosecution, the other members of the accused party inflicted fatal injuries on D-1, D-2 and D-3. It is the further case of the prosecution that D-1, on being inflicted injuries by the accused persons, ran towards the Police Station, situated near the court complex and made a statement (Ex. P-1) based on which the FIR (Ex. 22) was registered by PW-27. Thereafter, the FIR was sent to the Court of Judicial Magistrate, Vilathikulam which was received at about 5.00. p.m. on the same day. The injured D-1 was shifted to the Government Hospital and on an intimation being sent by PW-20 Dr. Rajaram (Raj Mohan), Assistant Civil Surgeon attached to Government Hospital, the learned Judicial Magistrate (PW-6) came to the hospital to record the dying declaration of the injured, Veeraperumal. According to the prosecution, while his statement was being recorded, D-1, slipped into a coma and, thereafter, died at about 4.07 p.m. The dying declaration (Exh P-4) was recorded in the presence of Paulsama, Medical Officer (PW-21) who had certified that the injured (D-1) was in a fit condition to make the statement. It is the further case of the prosecution that the other injured namely, Karumpulli and Madasamy were also brought to the hospital but had died on the way. It is further alleged by the prosecution that D-1 and D-2 were brought to the court complex from the jail premises by Police Constables Sankaranarayanan (PW-5) and Shanmugaraj (PW-7). Both the aforesaid police constables, according to the prosecution, were eye-witnesses to the occurrence and they had submitted a report to the Judicial Magistrate, Vilathikulam (Ex. P-2) in this regard. The prosecution has further alleged that in the course of the attack by A-1 Thirumani, A-5 had also sustained injuries for which A-5 had filed a complaint and he was medically examined. The prosecution also claims that at the instance of A-7, five aruvals were recovered.
(3.) On the completion of the investigation, charge sheet was submitted against all the accused under different Sections of the IPC. The offences alleged being triable by the Court of Sessions, the case was committed for trial to the Court of the learned Sessions Judge, Tuticorin. The learned trial court framed charges against the present appellants (17 in number) and six others under Sections 120 B, 147, 148, 332 and 302 read with Section 34/109/149 of the IPC. The accused having pleaded not guilty were tried. In the trial held, 30 witnesses were examined by the prosecution who had also exhibited a large number of documents besides as many as 20 material objects. Three witnesses were examined on behalf of the defence and as many as 10 documents were also exhibited. The learned trial Judge by the judgment and order dated 16.04.1988 held that the charges levelled against the accused persons have not been proved beyond all reasonable doubt. Accordingly, all the 23 accused were acquitted. On an appeal being filed by the State, the High Court by the impugned judgment and order dated 04-09-2008/19-09-2008 had set aside the acquittal of A-1 to A-19 and convicted them under different Sections of the IPC. The acquittal ordered by the learned trial court in respect of A-20, A-21, A-22, and A-23 was, however, maintained by the High Court. Of the 19 accused who have been convicted by the High Court, A-6 and A-11 have died in the mean time. Consequently, it is the 17 accused persons against whom the order of conviction continues to be effective who have instituted the present appeal.;