NATARAJAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Referred Trial No. 1 of 1999 is a reference by the Principal Sessions Judge, Tuticorin, for confirmation under Section 366 of Criminal Procedure Code of the death sentence passed against the accused Natarajan. He has been awarded the sentence of death as the Sessions Judge, Tuticorin has found him guilty of the offences under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code on two counts as also under Section 307, I.P.C. on two counts. Criminal Appeal No. 427 of 1999 has been filed by the accused against the finding of the conviction.

(2.) Shortly stated, the prosecution story is as under:-

(3.) Prosecution mainly relied on the evidence of the eye-witnesses, PW-1 Madathiammal, PW-2 Mariammal and PW-3 Sappanimuthu, out of whom PW-3 Sappanimuthu turned hostile, while the other two supported the prosecution PW-4 Lakshmi Ammal is a person, who took the injured in a Car to the Hospital. PW-5 Pechimuthu and PW-6 Chithiraj are the Panchayatdar witnesses on mahazar as well as on the discovery statements. PW-6 Chithiraj has turned hostile. PW-7 Jayakumar and PW-8 Ramasamy are the Doctors. Dr. Jayakumar conducted the post-mortem examination on the body of Shanmughavadivu and found four injuries on her person which was ante-mortem injuries, while the body of Gomathiammal had as many as eight incised injuries. The Doctor described the injuries to be sufficient in the ordinary course of time to cause death and also pin-pointed the said injuries. Dr. Ramasamy has proved the Injury Certificates, which he had issued after he had treated PW-1 Madathiammal and PW-2 Mariammal. He found as many as three incised injuries on the person of Madathiammal PW-1 out of which he described Injury No. 1 to be the grievous injury as per X-Ray photographs. He also found four incised injuries on the person of Mariammal and he issued the Injury Certificate where wound Nos. 2 and 3 were grievous in nature as per the X-Ray. Prosecution also relied on the evidence of Dr. Duraipandian, PW-9 who examined the X-Ray photographs to prove the fractures on the persons of Mariammal and Madathiammal. He issued the Certificates Ex. P-15 and P-16. PW-12 Mr. Mayandi, who was formerly Head Clerk in the Judicial Magistrate Court, Srivaikuntam, sent Exm. M. 1 to M. 18 and 21 to 24 for chemical analysis along with Ex. P-20, which was a requisition letter. Ex. P-21 is the report of the Chemical Analyst, while Ex. P-22 is the Serologist's report, PW-14 Kandasamy proved the First Information Report, while PW-15 Chinnayya deposed about the Investigation. The defence of the accused was extremely faulty. It was tried to be suggested that there was some altercation among the Villagers and there was an incident of stone throwing because of which, the two ladies were injured and lost their lives and the two other ladies were injured. The accused went on, however, to accept the guilt at the stage of examination of the accused under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code.