Judgment

M.K. Mukherjee, J.-This appeal under Section 379 Cr.P.C. is directed against the judgment and order dated September 2, 1997 rendered by the Madras High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 30 of 1988. By the impugned judgment the High Court reversed the acquittal of the appellant of five charges of murder, convicted him thereof and sentenced him to death. The victims were Nagamalai (elder brother of the appellant’s father), his wife, two sons and a daughter.

2. The prosecution case briefly stated is as follows:-

(i) On May 30, 1984 at or about 7.00 A.M. Sowndaram (P.W. 2), a resident of village Kondayapala­yam, in which Nagamalai and appellant also lived, went to the house of the former to fetch milk as it was her daily wont. Reach­ing there she found him, his wife, two sons and a daughter lying dead in the front yard of their house with bleeding injuries on their persons. She rushed back to her house and told her husband Kurukkal (P.W. 3) about the macabre murders. P.W. 3 then went to the house of Nagamalai and, having seen the dead bodies, apprised his co-villager Ramaswamy (P.W. 1) of the incident. After a visit to the house of Nagamalai, P.W. 1 went to the nea