BHAGAVAT SINGH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first accused in S.C. No.107 of 2014 on the files of the Additional District and Sessions Court ' IV, Pathanamthitta who stands convicted and sentenced for having committed the offences punishable under Ss. 457, 342, 397 and 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), challenges in this appeal his conviction and sentence in the said case.

(2.) Body of one Muhammed Kunju who was working as a security guard in a residential house was found in a partly decomposed state in the outhouse of the said residential house on 16/1/2012. A case was registered in connection with the death of Muhammed Kunju on 16/1/2012 by Adoor Police, on the basis of the information furnished by the son in law of the deceased, and a final report has been filed in the case, after investigation, against the accused alleging commission of the offences punishable under Ss. 457, 342, 397, 302 and 120(b) of IPC. The accused, four in number, are natives of Nepal. Among them, the second accused was residing in a rented house near the house where the occurrence took place.

(3.) The accusation in the case is that in furtherance to a criminal conspiracy hatched between the accused to murder Muhammed Kunju and commit robbery in the house where he is working as security guard, accused Nos.1, 3 and 4 trespassed into that house at about 1 a.m. on 13/1/2012, strangulated Muhammed Kunju to death using clothes, and after keeping the dead body in the outhouse, the accused broke open the kitchen door of the house using screwdriver, iron rods, hacksaw blades etc. and committed theft of a silver lamp, gold ornaments weighing 45.400 grams and silver ornaments weighing 66.500 grams.