SAJEEVAN AND Vs. KERALA STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a case in which the story of a murder committed in a cinema theatre at Kalamassery has been told by the prosecution. The nub of the story is that the gate keepers of the theatre had to pay heavily for thwarting the attempts made by two ticketless cinema goers to gate crash into the auditorium of the theatre, as one of them lost his life and the other was mauled brutally. Six persons were arraigned before the Sessions Court for the offences and five of them were convicted of different offences and sentenced to different terms of imprisonment including murder. Separate appeals have been filed by them.

(2.) The scene of occurrence was "Preethi" theatre at Kalamassery. Time was around 10-30 p.m. on 4-12-1986. The occurrence commenced like this : When the second show of the cinema started, two persons (2n and 6th accused) made a bid to get into the auditorium without tickets. The gateman (P.W. 3) resisted the attempts and there ensued a scuffle between them. Three other employees of the theatre (P.Ws. 1, 2 and the deceased Moosa) on seeing it, rushed to the rescue of their colleague. Both sides went at hammer and tongs and eventually the two bumpkins were overpowered. Hence they retreated from the scene and went out of the theatre compound. But it was only an interval during the occurrence.

(3.) A little later, accused 2 and 6 came back with three more persons which caused recrudescence of the attack. Accused 1, 3 and 5 were the new arrivals with accused 2 and 6. All the five jointly made a blits on P.W. 2 and P. W. 3 and also the deceased by beating them with hands. The victims resisted the attack and it turned into a tussle. Then another person (A4) who came out of the auditorium joined the assailants. At that stage 1st accused collected a knife from 3rd accused. Sensing the danger ahead P.W. 2 ran into the reserved class of the auditorium. But Al chased him and intercepted him and stabbed him on the chest as well as neck. Al came out of the auditorium and dashed into the ticket-counter wherein deceased Moosa had, by then, taken shelter and stabbed him also two or three times. As the victims were vanguished the assailants left the place.