(1.) THOUGH appellant Shankar in Crl.A.No.75 of 2012 and appellant Ramesh in Crl.A.No.76 of 2012 were convicted and sentenced by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, (Fast Track Court. I), Erode by separate judgments since they were rendered on the very same evidence, these two criminal appeals were heard together and are being disposed of by this Common Judgment.
(2.) ACTUALLY in Cr.No.39 of 2004, registered by Uthukuli Police Station, there are five accused, namely, 1)Raja, 2)Shankar, 3)Ramesh, 4) Venkatesh @ Venkatasami and 5)Palanivel. Out of them, some of them have appeared before the Committal Court and some of them have absconded. In the circumstances, the case against the absconding accused were split up. The learned Committal Magistrate committed the case against appellants Shankar (A2) and Ramesh (A3) to the Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Erode by separate orders. The learned Sessions Judge took the case against appellant Shankar on file in S.C.No.153 of 2009 and the case against appellant Ramesh (A3) in S.C.No.102 of 2009 and made over them to the Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court No.I), Erode for trial.
(3.) IT is pertinent to note that the procedure adopted by the learned Additional Sessions Judge is not correct. After obtaining orders from the learned Principal Sessions Judge, he should have clubbed both the cases and analysed the common evidence and rendered a single Judgment. Be as it may, now, we shall proceed to dispose of these appeals on merits.