RAVI Vs. STATE REP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CHALLENGE is made to a Judgment of the Principal Sessions Judge, Vellore in Special S. C. No. 5 of 2004, whereby the appellant/accused-1 along with two others stood charged, tried and found guilty under Sections 341, 302, 201 of IPC and 3 (2) (5) of the the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and awarded punishment as detailed below:-

(2.) THE short facts necessary for the disposal of the Criminal Appeal can be stated thus:

(3.) ADVANCING the arguments on behalf of the appellant Mr. V. Gopinath, learned Senior Counsel would submit that the occurrence had taken place at about 12 noon on 09. 08. 2004 and the prosecution had no direct evidence to offer and only rested its case on the circumstantial evidence. It placed two circumstances, one of which is the extra judicial confession alleged to have been given by A1 to the Village Administrative Officer on the next day morning viz. , 10. 08. 2004 at about 08. 00 a. m. when he was in office and the second circumstance was that P. W. 8 Tahsildar on receiving the information, came to the spot and it was the accused A1 who identified the place where the dead body was buried and it is only on this information, the said dead body was exhumed from the ground. Apart from that, the prosecution recovered all the material objects, had rested its case on the above evidence. Added further the learned Senior counsel that with those circumstances, though prosecution made an attempt to prove the guilt of the accused, it miserably failed.