MUTHUKRISHNAN AND ORS. Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since these two Criminal Appeals arise out of a Common Judgment, they were heard together and they are disposed of by means of this Common Judgment. The appellants in Crl.A.(MD).No.330 of 2011 are the accused Nos.1 and 2 and the appellant in Crl.A.(MD).No.350 of 2011 is the third accused in S.C.No.177 of 2007 on the file of the learned Sessions Judge, Kanyakumari Division at Nagercoil. There were two other accused by name Mahesh and Sundari @ Sundari Bai, who were arrayed as accused Nos.4 & 5 before the trial Court. The final report was filed by the Police as against a total number of six accused. The sixth accused was one Mr.Manoj. Since Mr.Manoj was found to be a juvenile, he was dealt with separately before the Juvenile Justice Board. Thus, the rest of the five accused alone were tried by the trial Court. The trial Court framed as many as four charges under Sections 147, 148, 341 and 302 r/w 34 IPC respectively against all the five accused. By judgment dated 20.10.2011, the trial Court convicted these three appellants/A1 to A3 alone under Sections 341 and 302 r/w 34 IPC and acquitted them from the rest of the charges. The trial Court acquitted the accused 4 & 5 from all the charges. For the offence under Section 341 IPC, the trial Court has sentenced the appellants to undergo simple imprisonment for one month and for the offence under Section 302 r/w 34 IPC, the trial Court sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.3,000/-, in default to undergo simple imprisonment for one year. Challenging the same, the appellants are before this Court with these two appeals.

(2.) The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows;

(3.) We have heard the learned senior counsel appearing for the appellants and the learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the State. We have also perused the records carefully.