STATE Vs. RAMESH; SELVAM; ALEXANDAR; MANUVEL; MANICKAM; ANTONY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State is the appellant in Crl.A(MD)No.144 of 2010. The respondents 1 to 6 therein are the accused in S.C.No.496 of 2007 on the file of the learned I Additional Sessions Judge, Tirunelveli. The trial Court framed as many as four charges against the accused. The first charge was against all the six accused under Section 148 I.P.C. The second charge was against accused Nos.2 & 4 alone under Section 323 I.P.C. The third charge was against the accused Nos.1,3, 5 and 6 under Section 302 r/w 34 I.P.C. The fourth charge was under Section 302 r/w 149 I.P.C against the accused Nos.2 and 4. By judgment dated 26.06.2009, the trial Court acquitted all the accused. Challenging the said acquittal, the State has come up with this Criminal Appeal.

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

(3.) Based on the above police report, the trial Court framed charges as detailed above and the accused denied the same. In order to prove the case, on the side of the prosecution, as many as 15 witnesses were examined and 21 documents were exhibited and 9 material objects were also marked. Out of the said witnesses, P.W.1 is an injured eye witness and P.W.2 is yet another eye witness. They have vividly spoken about the entire occurrence. P.W.3 is the son of P.W.2, who has spoken about the observation mahazar prepared and recovery of bloodstained earth and sample earth from the place of occurrence. P.W.4-Dr.Krishnan, has spoken about the treatment given to P.W.1 and P.W.5- Dr.Kulanthaivelu, has spoken about the fact that he declared the deceased dead, when he was brought to the hospital. P.W.6-Dr.Ramakrishnan, has spoken about the postmortem conducted by him and his final opinion. P.W.7 is an Assistant of the Court, who has spoken about forwarding of material objects for chemical examination. P.W.8, is an Official from Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, who has spoken about the fact that there was no electricity failure on the occurrence place. P.W.10 is the Village Administrative Officer, who has spoken about the fact that it was in his presence, the sixth accused was arrested on whose disclosure statement, four aruvals and two wooden logs were recovered. P.W.11, who was the then Head Constable and P.W.12, who was the Grade I constable, have spoken about carrying of the dead body for postmortem and other facts and they are not very important witnesses. P.W.13, who was the then Circle Inspector at Kulathupuzha Police Station in Kerala State, has stated that on 22.05.2007, Mr.Vellathurai was murdered, regarding which he has registered a case in Crime No.120 of 2007 at Kulathupuzha Police Station. He has further stated that in that case there were three accused and two of them are the sons of the deceased. P.W.14 has spoken about the registration of the case and P.W.15 has spoken about the investigation done.