INSPECTOR OF POLICE TAMIL NADU Vs. MUTHUSAMI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard.

(2.) Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of acquittal recorded by a Division Bench of the Madras High Court. The accused persons are the father and brother respectively of the deceased. The incident purportedly took place on 3.1.1990. Though the prosecution relied on the evidence of many persons who supposedly witnessed the occurrence, while deposing in Court, most of them resiled from the statements made during investigation. The version projected by the prosecution was that the deceased was throttled and also poison was administered to him. But the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory stated that the viscera did not contain any poison. The prosecution, therefore, gave up its stand that the deceased was administered poison by the accused persons. There were purportedly some extra-judicial confessions on which the Trial Court relied. Accordingly, the accused persons were convicted for offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short IPC). In appeal the High Court has, by the impugned judgment, directed acquittal.

(3.) Learned Counsel for the appellant-State submitted that the analysis made by the High Court to direct acquittal cannot be maintained as the High Court lost sight of several relevant factors.