GOPALAN NAMBIAR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Six of the seven accused in Sessions Case No. 4 of 1959 of the Kozhikode Sessions Court are the appellants. The charge against them was that on 11-11-1958 at about midnight they formed themselves into an unlawful assembly with the common object of committing the murder of one Malayil Chathu and one Karambath Chirutha and in furtherance of their common object trespassed into the house of Pw. 1 Kadungon and the first accused murdered the said Chathu by stabbing him with a dagger and accused 2 & 3 murdered the said Chirutha by strangulation, accused 4, 5 & 6 abetted the murder and along with accused 7 caused the disappearance of the evidence of the two murders. The learned Sessions Judge acquitted the 7th accused and convicted all the others either under S.302 or under S.302 read with S.149 or 109 besides finding them guilty of the lesser offences charged against them. He sentenced accused 1, 2 & 3 to the extreme penalty of law and accused 4, 5 & 6 to life imprisonment. All the accused except accused 1 were also awarded various terms of imprisonment for the lesser offences.

(2.) The first accused is a Nambiar and the others are Thiyyas. Accused 2 is the son of accused 3, while accused 7 is the son inlaw of accused 4. Accused 5 & 6 are brothers. Pws. 1 & 3 are respectively the father and mother of the deceased Chirutha and Pws. 2 & 5 are her brothers. The deceased Chathu was the son of a cousin of

(3.) All the accused pleaded not guilty. First accused stated that he was innocent and was falsely implicated by Chiruthas people who committed the murder and deposited the dead bodies in the tank. Second accused also stated that he was innocent and that he and Pw. 1 were on inimical terms, because Pw. 1 considered him responsible for the refusal of fourth accused to give his daughter in marriage to Pw. 2 the son of Pw. 1. The third accused simply denied everything. The fourth accused also spoke about the enmity of Pw. 1 because he refused to give his daughter in marriage to Pw. 1s son. Accused 5 and 6 also denied everything.