judgment

S.B. Sinha, J. —

1.Appellant with two others, namely, A2, Vellingiri, and A3, Officer @ Paramasivam, were prosecuted for commission of the offence of murder of one Somasundaram.

Appellant was an astrologer. The deceased was passing through tough times. His son had also remained ill for long time. He allegedly was advised by the appellant to perform some poojas on the bed of the river Bhavani situated at Nanjaipuliyampatti on or about 29.4.1996. He went to the place for the said purpose along with the accused persons. The deceased at that time was said to be wearing a gold chain (M.O.1) and two gold rings (M.Os.2 & 3) engraved with the letters “P.Mani”. The deceased was allegedly last seen by PW-3 and PW-4 namely, Nallasamy and K.Devaraj respectively and his brother-in-law PW-5, Muthusamy. He, however, did not come back. On inquiries having been made from the appellant, the family members of the deceased were informed that he had gone away after performing the said pooja for attending some function.

He was even thereafter not heard of for a long time. An advertisement was issued in a local newspaper on 12.5.1996. Poongodi (PW-1), the wife of the deceased, in order to search o