- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Bammiyampatti is a small village situated in the District of Salem in the State of Tamil Nadu. Amongst others, it is inhabitated by two communities known as 'Naidu' community and 'Adi Dravida' community. The fact that there has been longstanding enmity between the members of the said communities is not in dispute.
(3.) A function was to be organized by Adi Dravida community. Rangasamy, deceased was having a grocery shop. He despite being belonging to the Naidu community, permitted the members of the other community to take electricity from his shop. Having come to learn of the same, the accused persons, originally eight in number, got infuriated. Rangasamy was threatened with dire consequences for his act in supplying electrical energy to the members belonging to the Adi-Dravida community at about 10 p.m. on 29.03.1997. Next morning, i.e., on 30.03.1997, at about 11.30 a.m., the accused persons came to his shop with casuarina sticks, trespassed therein and at the instigation of Accused No. 1 T. Purushothaman Accused No. 3 Murugan and Accused Nos. 6 to 8 caught him whereafter Accused No. 2 Ravi hit the deceased with a casuarina stick on the left side of the head, Accused No. 4 Mohan assaulted him on the right side of the head with a casuarina stick and Accused No. 5 V. Padmanaban assaulted him on the right side of the face near the eye causing grievous injuries to him. The incident was witnessed by PW-1 Viswanathan, PW-2 Chandra and PW-3 Raman. It is not much in dispute that PWs 1 and 2 along with one Govindasamy took the injured Rangasamy to the Omalur Government Hospital at about 12.20 p.m. He was treated by Dr. Kumudha Rani, PW-7. Mention of the incident found place in the accident register (Exhibit P-14). The deceased was referred to the Government Hospital, Salem for further treatment by PW-7, upon taking into consideration the seriousness of the injuries suffered by him. The Omalur Government Hospital at Salem was situated at a distance of about 23 kms. from the place of occurrence. The deceased was examined by Dr. G. Sundaramurthy, PW-8 at about 1.00 p.m. It is evidenced by the entries in the Accident Register which was marked as Exhibit P-15. However, the injured was taken to a private nursing home known as Shanmuga Nursing Home. It is also not in dispute that despite making entries in the accident registers both by the attending doctors at the Omalur Government Hospital as also Salem Government Hospital, the SHO of the concerned police station was not intimated thereabout. Dr. Murugavel, PW-9 examined Rangasamy. He, however, did not respond to the treatment. He expired at about 4.00 a.m. on 31.03.1997.;