VEERABHARATHI AND Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment shall dispose of Referred Trial No. 2 of 1999 and Criminal Appeal Nos. 872, 939 and 925 of 1999 as all the matters emanate out of the judgment of the Principal Sessions Judge, Virudhunagar District at Srivilluputhur in Sessions Case No. 30 of 1999 in which the appellants in the above criminal appeals were the accused. The trial Court has convicted all the three accused of the offences under Section 376, I.P.C. as also under Section 302, I.P.C. and other allied offences. The trial Court has awarded death sentence to all the three appellants in the three appeals. Referred trial No. 2 of 1999 is in respect of the death sentence so awarded. For the sake of convenience, the appellants shall be referred to by their original accused numbers, they being Veerabharathi as first accused, Rahmathullah as second accused and Elango alias Murugan as third accused.

(2.) The prosecution story in short, as is revealed from the evidence, is that one Subalakshmi, a student studying in 9th Standard in S.B.K. Higher Secondary School, Aruppukottai, coming within the jurisdiction of Aruppukottai Police Station, was raped and murdered by all the three accused persons on 4-3-1998 in the evening and her body was thrown into the nearby well in the field of one Kandasamy Nadar. The prosecution case is that on the fateful day, the girl had attended the school and thereafter a special class and in the evening time at 6.00 p.m., she was proceeding towards the farmhouse of her father P.W.1 Subburaj. At that time, she was followed by the three accused persons, when she was passing from the fields of Chinnapuliyampatti Subramania Mudaliar and Kandasamy Nadar. The three accused were seen, while following her, by P.W.3 Valasubramanian and, in fact, the girl had complained of the teasing to P.W.4 Gurusamy, who was also coming back to his nearby house after answering the call of nature. The said P.W.4 Gurusamy also remonstrated the three accused who were teasing the girl. It is the prosecution case that soon thereafter, the girl was immobilised by the accused, taken to the nearby spot and she was caught and raped by all the three accused. It is the prosecution case that thereafter she was murdered. The prosecution claims that P.W. 6 Narayanan and P.W.7 Krishnan saw the said dastardly acts on the part of the accused, but kept quiet. The said two eyewitnesses also saw that the girl was gagged with the help of a churidhar (pants). The prosecution claims that the accused persons then threw the body of the unfortunate girl Subalakshmi into the well of Kandasamy Nadar.

(3.) Since the girl did not return, her father P.W.1 Subburaj became worried and he started searching the girl on 4-3-1998. He went to his farmhouse where his employee P.W.12 Mariappan reported to him that he heard a girl's shriek. Since their search did not yield any results, the missing of the girl was reported to the Aruppukottai Police Station by P.W.1 Subburaj, which report was recorded by P.W. 28 Sub-Inspector of Police Vijayakumar. While the search was on by P.W.1 Subburaj and P.W.12 Mariappan, they also found the bicycle of the girl. On the report, a 'girl missing case' was registered in Crime No. 99 of 1998 and, on the next day, i.e. on 5-3-1998, the matter was investigated by P.W.29 Inspector of Police Durairaj, but to no effect. It is the caseof the prosecution that thereafter, the Police tried to search the girl from the nearby places, but to no effect. On 8-3-1998, the brother of P.W.1 Subburaj saw the body of the unfortunate girl in the well belonging to Kandasamy Nadar. He immediately reported the matter to P.W.1 Subburaj, the father of the girl. P.W.1 Subburaj went to the well and found that the body of his daughter Subalakshmi was in the well. In the meantime, the whole village had come to know that the body of the missing girl was found. P.W.3 Valasubramanian, P.W.4 Gurusamy, P.W.6 Narayanan and P.W.7 Krishnan, who were also near the well at that time in the morning, told certain story regarding the rape and murder to P.W.1 Subburaj, who immediately lodged a further report and named the three accused in that report. The investigation was then transferred from P.W. 28 Vijayakumar to P.W. 29 Durairaj, Inspector of Police, who proceeded to the spot and executed an inquest mahazar (Ex. P-19). P.W. 29 Durairaj also recorded the statements of the witnesses. Since this dastardly murder of the unfortunate girl, whose body was found to be without any lower wearing apparel including her 'panty' (undergarment), raised a very angry reaction from the villagers of Aruppukottai and the law and order situation prevailing in that locality, probably, the investigation was taken over by P.W. 32 Jayagopal, Deputy Superintendent of Police. The statements of the other witnesses like the mother of the deceased P.W.2 Tmt. Easwari, her teachers, viz. P.W.9 Tmt. Pushpa, Headmistress and P.W. 10 Tmt. Balasaraswathi, class-teacher and her classmate P.W.11 Gayathri were recorded; so also the statements of the witnesses like P.W.12 Mariappan were also recorded. The age of the deceased Subalakshmi was found to be 15 years as per the Birth Certificate filed in the school, which is marked as Ex.P-3. It is confirmed that on the fateful day, the deceased Subalakshmi had attended the school and thereafter a special class. After her special class was over in the evening, she was accompanied by her classmate P.W.11 Gayathri up to the bus-stand from where Gayathri went to her house and Subalakshmi proceeded to her.