Pattanaik, J. - (1.) These appeals are directed against conviction of the appellants under Sections 302/34, 201 and 120-B, IPC and sentence to undergo imprisonment for life for conviction under Section 302/34, IPC and six months' R.I. under Section 120-B, IPC and R.I. for one year, each under Section 201/34, IPC. The learned Sessions Judge convicted the appellants of the aforesaid offences for causing the murder of one Issac Edward, inside the campus of Govt. Sanskrit College. The said conviction and sentence has been upheld in appeal by the High Court of Kerala.
(2.) The prosecution case in nutshell is that on 26-5-1992 at 10.30 p.m., deceased-Issac Edward, the watchman of the College came to close the College gate, on that score there was some quarrel between him and accused No. 1 and accused No. 1 slapped him and took away the keys. Issac Edward went to the residence of the Principal PW-2 and narrated the occurrence and came back to the College campus. His dead body was found on the next day hanging from the bracket of the sunshade of the second window of the corner of the building and according to the prosecution case, all the five accused persons hatched a conspiracy and in pursuance of the said conspiracy, assaulted the deceased and hanged him from the place where the dead body was found on the next morning. On getting the news of hanging of the deceased-Issac, PW-2 the Principal sent an information in writing to the Cantonment Police Station, which was treated as F.I.R., the investigation started and on completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed. The accused persons on being committed to the Court of Session, stood their trial. There is no eye-witness to the occurrence and prosecution case hinges upon the circumstantial evidence. The circumstances relied upon by the prosecution are as follows: (1) Though accused No. 1 was attached to the Cantonment Police Station and other accused persons were from the Armed Reserve Camp, Nandavanam, but all of them had been assigned the duty at the Sanskrit College in connection with the centralised valuation; (2) The evidence of PW-2, the Principal of the College, indicates that the deceased came to his house at 10.55 p.m. and informed him that a Police Constable prevented him from closing the gate and slapped him on his face and took away his torch and bunch of keys; (3) PW-5, in the early morning went to the watchman's room and he found drops of blood; (4) In the guard room on the table as well as on the wash tube, blood was found, which has been established through the evidence of PW-30 and the said blood on being serologically tested, was found to be human blood; (5) The medical evidence indicates that the death is homicidal in nature; (6) The fibre of lungi of A1 found in the hands of deceased, as is established by PW-30 and the report Exh. P41; (7) When PWs 13 and 14 asked accused No. 1 about blood in the guard room, there was no answer from accused No. 1; (8) The lungi, that was used as ligature was stained with human blood of Group 'A' and the blood group of accused No. 2 is also of Group 'A'.
(3.) Relying upon these circumstances, the learned Sessions Judge convicted the accused persons of offences as already stated and the High Court also has affirmed the conviction on appeal.;