JUDGMENT :

DEEPAK GUPTA, J.

1. This appeal is filed by Accused Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9 against the judgment of the High Court whereby Guru @ Gurubaran (A1) and Durai @ Durairajan (A2) have been convicted under Section 302, Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced to imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- each with default sentence of 3 months rigorous imprisonment (RI). As far as Vettri @ Vetrivell (A3) is concerned, he was convicted under Section 324 IPC on two counts and sentenced to one year RI on each count and fine of Rs. 1000/- with default sentence of 3 months. Narayanan (A5) and Srinivasan (A9) along with other accused were convicted under Section 323 IPC and sentenced to undergo six months RI and pay fine of Rs. 1000/- each with default sentence of 3 months. All the sentences were to run concurrently.

2. The prosecution case is that Parasuraman (PW-14), son of deceased Saroja and Munusamy Pillai (PW-1), was in love with Uma, the younger sister of A1. They both got married and after the marriage, PW-14 lived in his wife’s house. However, Saroja (deceased) did not approve of this. Thereafter, PW-14 came back to his house. On 03.03.1998, it is alleged that Jayaraman (A