THIRUMOORTHY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused 1 to 4 are the appellants herein. The appeal is filed against their conviction and sentence imposed and sentence upon them for the offence under Section 326 IPC by the trial court. The case of the prosecution is that there was previous enmity between the family members of the defacto complainant and the 1st accused Thirumoorthy who are the permanent residents of Belur village in Jawadi Hills and on 25.8.2002 at about 3.00 p.m. one Thukan who is the close relative of Suvendiran grazed his cattle in the fields of Thirumoorthy leading to quarrel between the two and the same compelled the defacto complainant to give a complaint to Village Panchayat. The panchayat was held at 10. p.m. on 25.8.2002 and in the course of such panchayat all the four accused assaulted with knife the defacto complainant and his brother Ponnurangam with knife saying " and thus voluntarily caused them grievous hurt and with such intention and knowledge that their act of assault is likely to cause the death of victims and such act according to prosecution constitutes the offence punishable under Section 307 IPC. The prosecution has in order to establish the charges against the accused, examined one of the injured, independent eye witnesses and mahazar witnesses, medical Doctor who treated the injuries and police officials who registered the case and investigated the complaint as P.W. 1 to P.W. 12 and produced Ex. P.1 to 13 documents and M.O. 1 to M.O. 9 material objects. The accused in support of their defence examined D.W. 1 to D.W. 4 and produced Ex. D.1 to Ex. D.5 documents.

(2.) The trial court on the basis of the available records arrived at a conclusion that Panchayat held between the two groups was regarding land dispute between them, in the course of which the accused group assaulted P.W. 1 and his brother on the spur of anger without any criminal intention and hence found the accused not guilty of the offence under Section 307 IPC, but guilty only under section 326 IPC and convicted and sentenced them accordingly. Hence this appeal by the accused 1 to 4 before this Court.

(3.) As already referred to, all the four accused are the appellants before this court. Though the accused were originally charged for the offence under Section 307 IPC, they were found guilty and convicted and sentenced for the offence under Section 326 IPC. The learned counsel for the appellants have in this appeal seriously questioned the correctness of the finding rendered by the trial court regarding the manner of the occurrence and the participation of the accused in the same on the following grounds;