GOVINDASWAMI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal under Section 379, Cr. P.C. is directed against the judgment and order dated September 2, 1997 rendered by the Madras High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 30 of 1988. By the impugned judgment the High Court reversed the acquittal of the appellant of five charges of murder, convicted him thereof and sentenced him to death. The victims were Nagamalai (elder brother of the appellant's father), his wife, two sons and a daughter.

(2.) The prosecution case briefly stated is as follows:- (i) On May 30, 1984 at or about 7.00 a.m. Sowndaram (PW-2), a resident of village Kondayapalayam, in which Nagamalai and appellant also lived, went to the house of the former to fetch milk as it was her daily wont. Reaching there she found him, his wife, two sons and a daughter lying dead in the front yard of their house with bleeding injuries on their persons. She rushed back to her house and told her husband Kurukkal (PW-3) about the macabre murders. PW-3 then went to the house of Nagamalai and, having seen the dead bodies, apprised his co-villager Ramaswamy (PW-1) of the incident. After a visit to the house of Nagamalai, PW-1 went to the nearby village Varapalayam and gave a report to Ramani Marimuthu (PW-7), their Village Administrative Officer, which was recorded by him. In that report he first described what he had seen in the house of Nagamalai and then stated that he suspected that Govindaswami (the appellant) and his younger brother had committed the murders as there was a land dispute between them and Nagamalai.

(3.) The appellant pleaded not guilty to the charges and contended that he was falsely implicated.