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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
O. CHINNAPPA REDDY AND BAHARUL ISLAM, JJ.
(1) Sevi and another (2) Koodakkal Karian and others, Appellants
Versus
State of T.N. and another, Respondents.
Criminal Appeals Nos. 15 and 147 of 1976, D/- 3-3-1981.
Indian Penal Code,1860 – Sections 148, 302,34,307 – SC (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970 - Appeal Against Conviction - Murder Case - Vanniars and Naickers of village in regard to management of temple - Accused all of whom are closely inter-related, belong to group while most of prosecution witnesses belong to group of Vanniars - On September at about was returning home from his field while was going to his field and coming in opposite direction - Accused were going ahead of at a distance of about - They were indulging in abuse of villagers - Questioned why he was indulging in such abuse whereupon A.picked up stone and hit left side of the head fell down shouting "Ayyo, Appa, I am dying" - Two accused then ran away chased who ran to house of his father-in-law and hid himself inside house - Then proceeded to house of who had been injured by stone thrown - When he was at house of deceased and came there - Deceased asked all of them to go with him to question A4 why he had beatenwith a stone - When they had reached manure pit situated on way eight accused came there A5 caught hold of stabbed him on right side of back - Deceased said what is this injustice. caught him and stabbed deceased on left flank - A1 also stabbed him once on left side and again on right side - Caught stabbed him on left shoulder - A4 stabbed again times. A6 caught and stabbed him on right flank - Thereafter all eight accused ran away ran from scene of occurrence towards his house - He met on way told him about occurrence and asked him to go to a village three miles from and telephone to police. accordingly went to and asked to telephone to police that some persons of his village had been stabbed by other persons of village - Accordingly telephoned to Police Station at - Sub-Inspector of Police on receipt of telephone message proceeded to village taking with him F.I.R. book, hospital memo book etc. At he found P.Ws. 2 to 5 in an injured condition and deceased dead – Held,Court think that there is great force in submission of learned counsel for accused that original F.I.R. has been suppressed and in its place some other document has been substituted - If that is so entire prosecution case becomes suspect - All eye-witnesses are partisan witnesses and notwithstanding fact that four of them were injured we are unable to accept their evidence in peculiar circumstances of case- Where entire evidence is of a partisan character impartial investigation can lend assurance to Court to enable it to accept such partisan evidence - But where investigation itself is found to be tainted task of the Court to sift the evidence becomes very difficult indeed - Another feature of case which makes us doubt the credibility of witnesses is the photographic and somewhat dramatic account which they gave of incident with minute details of the attack on each of the victims - According to account of witnesses it was as if each of victims of attack came upon the stage one after other to be attacked by different accused in succession each victim and his assailant being followed by next victim and the next assailant - Surely account of witnesses is too dramatic and sounds obviously invented to allow each witness to give evidence of entire attack - But witnesses themselves admit in cross-examination that they were all attacked simultaneously - If so it was impossible for each of them to have noticed attack on everyone else - One other important feature of case which remains unexplained by prosecution witnesses is te injuries found - According to A4 prosecution party came to his house and attacked him and prosecution party were injured in that incident suggesting thereby that he acted in exercise of his right of private defence - He however excludes presence of other accused - Whether his version is true or not fact remains that he did sustain some injuries which have remained unexplained - Having regard to all these special features of this case Court do not think that High Court was justified in setting aside acquittal of appellants and convicting them - Appeals allowed
Judgment
CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:- Criminal Appeal No. 15 of 1976 is under the SC (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970, and Criminal Appeal No. 147 of 1976 is an appeal by Special Leave. The five appellants in the two appeals and three others were tried by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge of Salem and acquitted of offences under Ss. 148, 302 read with Sec. 34 and other cognate offences. On an appeal by the State of Tamil Nadu the High Court of Madras confirmed the acquittal of accused 3, 5 and 7 and convicted the present appellants (accused 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8) under Sec. 148, Indian Penal Code. The High Court also convicted Al and A2 (appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 15 of 1976) under Sec. 302 read with Sec. 34 and accused A4, A6 and A8 (appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 147 of 1976) under Sec. 307, Indian Penal Code. The case of the prosecution briefly was that there was enmity between the Vanniars and Naickers of Kottaiyur village in regard to the management of Mariamman temple. The accused, all of whom are closely inter-related, belong to the Naicker group while most of the prosecution witnesses belong to the group of the Vanniars. On September 4, 1972, at about 6 P.m. P.W. 1 was returning home from his field while P.W. 2 was going to his field and coming in the opposite direction. Accused 4 and 5 were going ahead of P.W. 1 at a distance of about 30 ft. They were indulging in abuse of the villagers. P.W. 2 questioned A4 why he was indulging in such abuse whereupon A. 4 picked up stone and hit P.W. 2 on the left side of the head. P.W. 2 fell down shouting "Ayyo, Appa, I am dying". The two accused then ran away. P.W. 1 chased A4, who ran to the house of his father-in-law and hid himself inside the house. P.W. 1 then proceeded to the house of P.W. 2, who had been injured by the stone thrown by A4. When he was at the house of P.W. 2 the deceased Alagappan and P.Ws. 3, 4 and 5 came there. The deceased asked all of them to go with him to question A4 why he had beaten P.W. 2 with a stone. When they had reached the manure pit situated on way, the eight accused came there. A5 caught hold of P.W. 3 and A6 stabbed him on the right side of the back. The deceased said what is this injustice. A3 caught him and A2 stabbed the deceased on the left flank. A1 also stabbed him once on the left side and again, on the right side. A7 caught P.W. 4 and A4 stabbed him on the left shoulder. A4 stabbed again 4 or 5 times. A6 caught P.W. 5 and A8 stabbed him on the right flank. Thereafter all the eight accused ran away. P.W. 1 ran from the scene of occurrence towards his house. He met P.W. 9 on the way, told him about the occurrence and asked him to go to Kaveri Palayam, a village three miles from Kottaiyur, and telephone to the police. P.W. 9 accordingly went to Kaveri Palayam and asked P.W. 10 to telephone to the police that some persons of his village had been stabbed by other persons of the village. P.W. 10 accordingly telephoned to the Police Station at Kolathur. The Sub-Inspector of Police P.W. 15 on receipt of the telephone message proceeded to Kolathur village, taking with him the F.I.R. book, hospital memo book etc. At Kolathur he found P.Ws. 2 to 5 in an injured condition and the deceased dead. He arranged to send P.Ws. 2 to 5 in a lorry to Mettur Hospital and between 9-30 p.m. and 10 p.m. he recorded the complaint of P.W. 1 which he registered as the First Information Report. The Inspector of Police P.W. 16 arrived in the village at 2-30 a.m. and took over the investigation. After completing the investigation a chargesheet was laid against eight accused.
2. The learned Additional Sessions Judge noticed certain disquieting features in the case put forward by the prosecution and acquitted the accused. The High Court, on appeal by the State convicted five out of the eight accused in the manner aforesaid.
3. One of the disturbing features of the case is the strange conduct of P.W. 15 the Sub-Inspector of Police. According to him
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