SEBASTIAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants in these appeals are accused 1 and 2 in S.C.No.861 of 2011 on the files of the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge-III, Alappuzha. Among them, the first accused stands convicted and sentenced for the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for the murder of one Jayaprakash and the second accused who is the brother-inlaw of the first accused, stands convicted and sentenced for the offence punishable under Sec. 212 of IPC for rescuing and harbouring the first accused after the crime.

(2.) Jayaprakash was a person engaged in transporting goods using his country boats between different places in Kuttanad. At 7.15 a.m. on 24/8/2010, Rajeev, the brother-in-law of Jayaprakash informed Pulinkunnu Police that he received information from one Rajesh that Jayaprakash is found lying in a weak state with a bleeding head in the boat jetty at Pandicherry and when he went to that place, Jayaprakash was found lying on his back on a cement bench in the jetty. The police was also told by Rajeev that even though he and others took Jayaprakash to the General Hospital, Alappuzha, he breathed his last on the way to the hospital. A case was registered by Pulinkunnu Police on the said information. The investigation conducted in the case thereafter revealed that on 23/8/2010, Jayaprakash and the first accused engaged in multiple exchange of obscene words at the toddy shop located at Kainakary and that at about 10.45 p.m. on the same day, on account of the said enmity, the first accused beat twice with a flat iron bar on the face of the deceased while he was sleeping on the cement bench at Pandicherry Boat Jetty and thereby caused his death. It was also revealed in the investigation that the second accused rescued the first accused thereupon from that place and harboured him.

(3.) On the accused being committed to trial, the Court of Session framed charges against them in terms of the final report to which they pleaded not guilty. The evidence in the case consists of the oral evidence of PWs 1 to 30 and Exts.P1 to P26 proved through them. MO-I to MO-V are the material objects identified by the witnesses. Exts.D1 and D2 are the case diary statements of PW3 and PW19 respectively marked at the instance of the defence. The accused were thereupon questioned under Sec. 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code) as regards the incriminating evidence brought out by the prosecution. The accused denied the same. As the Court of Session did not find the case to be one fit for acquittal under Sec. 232 of the Code, the accused were called upon to enter on their defence. The accused examined two witnesses on their side at that stage as DW1 and DW2. Thereafter, on an appreciation of the evidence, the Court of Session found the accused guilty of the offences referred to above and sentenced the first accused, among others, to imprisonment for life. The second accused was sentenced, among others, to undergo simple imprisonment for three years. The accused are deeply aggrieved by their conviction and sentence and hence these appeals.