RAJAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This case belongs to the series of killing spree indulged in by some R.S.S. loyalists and Marxist Party followers against each other in Kerala. Deceased, an R.S.S. activist or loyalist earned a sobriquet "Wayanadan Thampan". He was earlier involved in another murder case in which a marxist follower was killed. As he was acquitted by the Court, he became the prime target for retaliation by the other side. On 3-8-1984 he was chased by some assailants and was killed by throwing bombs (or hand grenade) at him. One bomb hit him and exploded. It smashed his head. Four persons were indicted for his murder. But, Sessions Court convicted only the appellant (who is none other than the first cousin of deceased) for the offence under S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and S. 3 of the Indian Explosives Act. He has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for the first Count, but no separate sentence was awarded for the other count.

(2.) Summary of the case is this: In revenge of what the deceased did in the earlier case, appellant and his companions went near the house of the deceased on two bicycles with bombs. Deceased was walking back to his house after a dip in the nearby stream. The four accused on seeing the deceased, alighted from the cycles and threw a bomb at him. Though the bomb exploded, it did not hurt the deceased. He made a bid to flee from the place. As he ran southwards, all the four accused chased him. Two of them again threw bombs at him which also, though exploded, missed the target. However, appellant, succeeded as the bomb hurled by him hit the deceased and exploded. The four accused then left the scene on the bicycles.

(3.) Deceased's younger sister Ammini (P.W. 1) gave First Information Statement at 3 p.m. when the police went to her house to get fuller information about the occurrence "(police had some unauthentic report through a phone message about the incident, hence they went in search of someone who could give more details).