SUNDARAMOORTHY Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been filed against the Judgment in S. C. No. 82 of 2002 on the file of Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court) Tirupathur.

(2.) ACCORDING to the prosecution, on 20. 6. 2001 at about 2. 00p. m. , while the deceased Sriramulu was asleep, the accused Sundaramoorthy had caused the death of the said Sriramulu with a piece of towel causing suffocation due to previous enmity in connection with the purchase of a pair of bulls from P. W. 9 Arumugam to the accused for Rs. 7,200/-,some two months prior to the date of occurrence. The accused had paid Rs. 500/- only and the balance amount of Rs. 6,700/- is to be paid to P. W. 9. Since the above said transaction was arranged by the accused, he was often reminding the accused to pay the balance of the amount for the above said purchase of a pair of bull to P. W. 9, the accused had developed a grudge which resulted in the murder of the deceased on 20. 6. 2001 at 2. 00p. m. , The complaint was preferred by P. W. 1, who had seen the dead body of the deceased in the well of his land. P. W. 1 could not identify the dead body and he had preferred Exp1 complaint to P. W. 17 who had registered a case under Crime NO. 421/2001 under Section 174 Cr. P. C. . The entire case of the prosecution rests on the last seen theory put forward by P. W. 5, the wife of the deceased, who would depose that her husband/deceased was demanding the accused to pay the balance of consideration due to P. W9, in connection with the purchase of a pair of bulls and that the accused took P. W. 5's husband (the deceased) on 18. 6. 2001 at 10. 00 am. , from the house but her husband did not return. On seeing the dead body of her husband in the photo published in the newspaper on 23. 06. 2001, she preferred Ex P3 complaint with Santhavassal police station. The evidence of P. W. 6, son of the deceased and P. W. 7, brother of P. W. 1 have also corroborated with the evidence of P. W. 5. P. W. 8, Mannammal was also examined to show that she had seen the deceased in a bus proceeding to Vellore, in which, she also travelled with them and that on enquiry, she was told that they were going to purchase a pair of bulls. P. W. 16 has also deposed to the fact that he had seen the accused and the deceased together at Kudiyankuppam village and gave accommodation and food at his residence and after 1 = months, the accused alone came to him and confessed that he had murdered the deceased. P. W. 12 is the head Constable of Santhavassal Police station who had registered the complaint preferred by P. W. 5 in Cr. No. 166/2001 on 23. 6. 2001 at 8. 00p. m. ,. The investigation was conducted by P. W. 19, who had altered the Section from Section 174 Cr. P. C. to Section 302 IPC,after P. W. 5 identified the body. On 23. 6. 2001, he had visited the place of occurrence, prepared observation mahazar, had drawn rough sketch, examined the witnesses, and arrested the accused. The accused had given a confession statement before P. W. 13, Kaliappan, Village Administrative Officer at 3. 30p. m. , who had handed over the accused to the police. The accused has also given earlier confession statement before P. W. 15 and P. W. 16, who have advised him to surrender before the Village Administrative Officer. P. W. 20,is the Doctor, who had conducted autopsy and filed Ex P11 postmortem certificate. After observing all the formalities, P. W. 19, the Inspector of Police has filed charge sheet. The charge sheet was taken on file by the learned Judicial Magistrate No. I,thirupathur under P. R. C. 12/2001. The learned Judicial Magistrate had furnished the copies to the accused under Section 207 Cr. P. C. and since the case is triable by Court of Sessions, the learned Judicial Magistrate had committed the case to the Court of Sessions under Section 209 Cr. P. C. . The learned Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court) Tiruppathur had framed charges under Sections 302 IPC and 201 IPC against the accused and when questioned the accused pleaded not guilty.

(3.) BEFORE the trial Court, P. Ws 1 to 20 were examined. Exs. P1 to P. 12 and M. O. 1 to M. O. 6 were marked.