ABRAHAM JOHN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant is the 4th accused in S. G. Nos. 49 and 59 of 1967 on the file of the Court of Session, Kottayam Altogether there were 7 accused persons in the case. The charge against them was under Sections 120b, 143, 147, 148, 802, 324, 453 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code. They were convicted under Section 148,i. P. C. by the learned Additional Sessions Judge who tried the case and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months. All of them except accused 8 and 5 were also convicted under Section 147, I. P. C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for sis months. Accused 1, 2, 4 and 6 were convicted under Section 148, I. P. C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for eight months. Accused 1, 2 and 6 were convicted under Section 324,i. P. C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for eight months. The 7th accused was convicted under Section 823, I. P. C. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for sis months. Accused 1, 2, 6 and 7 were convicted under Section 458, I. P. G. and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for eight months. The 4th accused was convicted under Section 302. I. P. C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The sentences were directed to run concurrently.

(2.) THE charge was that all the accused and P. W. 2 who was subsequently granted pardon, were members of an unlawful assembly and that at or about 8 P. M. on 11-54967 at Puthuparambu property in Mundakkayam in prosecution of the common object of the assembly which was to forcibly evict the occupants of the building in Puthuparambu property accused 1, 2, 6 and 7 committed housebreaking and caused hurt to P. Ws. 1, 3 and 4 and the 4th accused murdered one Mathew. Their plea was that 'they were only guilty.

(3.) THE occurrence took place as a result of the 1st accused's attempt to take the law into bus own hands. The 2nd accused is the 1st accused's son. P. W. 4 is P. W. 1'a wife. P. W. 1 and the 1st accused are brothers. Mathew was their brother. P. W. 8 is their mother. The 3rd accused is a cousin of the 1st accused and P. W. 1. Puthuparambu propetty belonged to the deceased father of the 1st accused. Under a settlement-deed executed by him he gave 11/2 acres of land on the northernmost portion in that property to his daughter. 11/2 acres of land lying adjacently to the south of it in the same property was given by him to P. W. 8. The portions of the property lying farther south of it were given by him to his sons. The 1st accused purchased from his sister the northernmost 11/2 care of land belonging to her. Thereafter he constructed a building there. After reserving one room for his own use he rented out the remaining portions of the building to one Muthu Nadar. The 1st accused wanted to sell the northernmost 11/2 acres of land and the building constructed there by him. His brothers and P. W. 3 were opposed to it. In order to defeat him P. W. 3 started occupying the room in the building which he had reserved for his own use. Attempts made by respectable persons in the locality to settle the dispute between the parties failed.