- (1.) Ajit Kumar @ Aji (accused no.1), Vinu (accused no.6), Biju (accused no.2) and Suku @ Balu (accused no.4) are the appellants in Criminal Appeal Nos.1957-1958 of 2010 AND Saju (accused no.3) is appellant in Criminal Appeal No.195 of 2013. All the accused stand convicted under Sections 120B, 143, 147, 148, 452, 436, 427, 324, 302 and 307 r/w Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code for causing injuries to PW-1, Sisupalan @ Kannan, and causing murder of two persons, Sudarsanan (Gopalan) and Santhosh (Chandran).
(2.) Case of the prosecution is that in the night of 22.07.1992 all the five accused along with others (in all 20 who were put to trial) formed unlawful assembly and mounted an assault on the complainant party. PW-1 came out of the house after locking his house and walked a short distance through the eastern way towards the main road. Seeing the accused, he rushed back to his courtyard. He was assaulted by accused no.1 and accused no.4 with the swords. He caught hold of the said swords and sustained injuries in the inner side of his both palms. Thereafter, he ran through the lane on the northern side of his house and came to the road. He found Sudarsanan, Santhosh and PW-7, Bahuleyan, standing on the road in front of the Sree Durga Theatre. He told them that he was assaulted by the accused and asked them to run away and cautioned them not to take that way. He then took shelter in a thatched shed situated near the theatre compound and found the accused chasing Sudarsanan, Santhosh and PW-7. The accused then assaulted Sudarsanan and Santhosh by using deadly weapons, as a result of which they fell down in the theatre compound. Thereafter accused ran towards the house of PW-1 and committed mischief by fire and damaged the house and returned to the theatre. The accused again attacked Sudarsanan and Santhosh and then left the compound. Sudarsanan and Santhosh were taken to the medical college hospital by the persons assembled there but both of them succumbed to their injuries on their way to hospital. After the first attack PW-1 came near Sudarsanan and Santhosh but seeing the accused again coming towards theatre compound escaped and went to the medical college hospital and got admitted there. His statement was recorded by the Circle Inspector of the Police, PW-30, on the next day at 8 a.m. which was treated as F.I.R.
(3.) We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the records.;