1. The scene of the incident in this case is the verandah of a building belonging to pw. 3. It abuts on a road and has three rooms facing north, with along verandah in their front. The western room is let to pw. 1 who runs a copra business there; and in the other two rooms pw. 3 himself conducts a grocery shop and a tea shop. At the western end of the verandah is a platform, which the scene mahazar shows to be 8 ft. long, 3 ft. wide and cement plastered. Adjoining this verandah is an accessary verandah 11/2 ft. in width. The height of the platform from the accessary verandah is 3 feet 3 inches. The shops of pw. 3 are usually attended to by him and, in his absence, by his sons. Ahmedkutty was a son of pw. 3 whose pass in the B. Sc. degree examination was announced only 3 or 4 days before the incident. On June 23,1965, pw. 3 was not in station. At about 10 a. m. Ahmedkutty went to attend the shops and relieved his brother who was there till then. He got a daily newspaper to read. At about 11 a. m. pw. 1, who was then inside the shop with its shutters removed, saw him reclining on the above said platform with h is head to the north and reading the daily. In a little while,