PERUMAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Accused 1 and 2 in C. C. No. 1822 of 1953 on the file of the third Presidency Magistrate, Saidapet, are the petitioners herein. They were convicted of the offence of theft and sentenced to one month's rigorous imprisonment each.

(2.) The case for the prosecution is that the first petitioner with the assistance of two others (the third accused has been acquitted by the lower Court) shot a spotted deer in the reserve forest attached to the Raj Bhavan, Guindy. On hearing the shot the forest guard, the forest watcher and other persons tried, to trace where from the shot came and they ultimately found these two accused cutting a deer at a distance of 150 yards from the reserve forest. The third accused escaped and the petitioners alone were immediately arrested and then a charge-sheet was laid against these petitioners and the other person for offences under Sections 429 and 379, I. P. C. They were acquitted under Section 429, I. P. C., but convicted only under Section 379, I. P. C. and sentenced as aforesaid.

(3.) The defence, was that the first accused bought this deer from another person and that It was that deer that he was killing and that the second accused assisted, the first accused in the killing off the deer.