STALIN @ SATALIN SAMUVEL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeals challenge the judgment dtd. 19/2/2009 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Madras, thereby dismissing the appeals filed by the appellants herein and affirming the judgment dtd. 14/11/2007 passed by the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Thiruvallur District (hereinafter referred to as "the trial court"), thereby convicting the appellants herein for the offences punishable under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, "IPC") and sentencing them to suffer life imprisonment. The trial court further convicted the appellants herein under Sec. 109 read with Sec. 201, Sec. 109 read with Sec. 182 and Ss. 120B and 148 of the IPC and sentenced them to suffer rigorous imprisonment for the different periods under the said Ss. .

(2.) The prosecution story, in brief, is as under: Deceased M.R. Ravi was carrying on real estate business in Yadaval Street, Padi. He also happened to be the Town Secretary of AIADMK party of Ambattur. It is the prosecution case that accused Nos. 1 and 11 also belonged to the same political party. Accused Nos. 12 to 14 were close associates of accused No. 1. It is the prosecution case that deceased M.R. Ravi belonged to one group of the said political party whereas accused Nos. 1 and 11 belonged to the other group. According to the prosecution, they thus developed enmity towards the deceased. Accused No.1 was arrested in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and accused No. 11 was arrested in a case under the IPC and they strongly believed that they were arrested only on the instigation of the deceased.

(3.) According to the prosecution, on 2/6/2006 at around 10.30 a.m., deceased M.R. Ravi was inside his cabin and Kumar (PW-1), Palani (PW-2) and Sivalingam (PW-3) were sitting in the office outside his cabin. At that time, six persons came there and enquired about the deceased M.R. Ravi from Palani (PW-2) and Sivalingam (PW-3), who were employees of the deceased. Though the accused persons were informed that the deceased was performing puja, four out of six accused persons forcibly entered into the cabin of the deceased and stabbed him with knives. It is the prosecution case that on seeing this, Kumar (PW-1), in order to save his life, ran from there. Accused Nagoor Meeran (since deceased), who was standing outside with the other accused persons, attempted to stab Kumar (PW-1). On seeing this, Palani (PW-2) and Sivalingam (PW-3) also ran from there.