NAGARATHINAM Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Maiyoor is a small village situate in the district of Chenglepet. Appellant No.1 had a brick-kiln therein, which was being run in a land belonging to a village temple known as one Gangaiamman temple. The villagers were opposed to it. They complained thereabout to one Rajendran, who was President of the Panchayat Board. He, in turn, lodged a complaint with the Block Development Officer who imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000/- on the said appellant. The amount of fine was not paid. The President, Panchayat Board filed a suit therefor, which was decreed. Furthermore, allegedly a sum of Rs.12,000/- collected by the villagers for temple festival and entrusted to the 1st appellant had not been accounted for by him. Rajendran convened a meeting of the Gram Panchayat for taking further action against the 1st appellant. The appellant Nos. 2 and 3 are sons of the 1st appellant.

(2.) They, allegedly, having felt insulted and aggrieved over the convening of the meeting, formed themselves into an unlawful assembly at about 2.00 p.m. on 22-7-1990 and questioned the authority of the said Rajendran to convene it. He used some filthy language whereupon Shanmugam (the 1st deceased), a nephew of the said Rajendran, asked him not to do so and express his grievance, if any, in the meeting itself which was to be held at 5.00 p.m on that day. On that, the first appellant allegedly caught hold of his hands from the back side and asked the others to finish him once for all whereupon the appellant No.2, Sankar, brought a small knife from the tea stall and stabbed him (1st deceased) in his stomach. Krishnan, (the 2nd deceased), was coming from his agricultural field. He, on witnessing the said incident, cried. He tried to lift the 1st deceased whereupon the appellant No.1 with a Thadi (stick) assaulted him on his head. The third appellant is said to have assaulted Krishnan with another stick on his shoulder. He also fell down. P.W.1- Gajendran, P.W.2- Elumalai, P.W.3-Paramasivam and P.W.10-Chandran, were sitting near a tea stall. They went to the place of occurrence and made an attempt to lift the two deceased persons. The appellant then, allegedly, threatened them also. One Mohan, who allegedly had come with the appellants is said to have assaulted P.W.1 with a stick. The appellant No.3 is said to have stabbed P.W.3 on his back and when P.W.2 came near him, caused injury on his right hand fingers. Accused No.4, who is not an appellant before us, is said to have caused a cut injury on the head of P.W.10. The appellants allegedly fled from the scene after the prosecution witnesses started assaulting them with stones and sticks.

(3.) Indisputably, all the appellants were also injured. They went to hospital and in view of the nature of injuries on their persons were admitted as indoor patients. The hospital registers indicate that they were admitted in the hospital at about 4.00 p.m. In the Accident Register the nature of injuries on their persons were said to have been caused by knife and bottle. The injuries on the person of the appellants herein were found by the attending doctors as under: