JUDGMENT :

N.V. Ramana, J.

1. This appeal is directed against the Judgment dated 8th November, 2006 passed by the High Court of Kerala in Criminal Appeal No. 1906 of 2004, wherein the High Court has dismissed the appeal preferred by the accused/appellant herein and upheld the order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court-I, Palakkad, in Sessions Case No. 104 of 2002.

2. The material available on record reveals that initially there were nine accused in this case against whom an FIR was registered at 9 am on 6.3.2000 at Kongad Police Station for causing the death of one Rajesh and injuring the complainant/Vinod (PW2), who happens to be the cousin of the deceased. Since the accused No. 2 (Ayyappankutty) was found hanging from a tree on the next day and was declared dead, charges were framed only against the remaining accused under Sections 143, 147, 148, 302, 342 and 324 r/w 149 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 [hereafter ‘IPC’ for brevity]. The Trial Court acquitted A3, A4, A6, A7, A8 and A9 of the charges and convicted A1 (Kanakarajan) and A5 (Sukumaran) for the offences punishable under Sections 143, 147, 148, 342 and 302 r/w 149 of IPC.