JUDGMENT :

This is an appeal filed under Section 14A(2) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act').

2. The appellants are the accused in the case registered as Crime No.1510/2019 of Nedumangad police station. The case was initially registered under Sections 341, 294(b), 323, 324, 506, 427 and 308 read with 34 I.P.C. Subsequently, the offences punishable under Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the Act were added.

3. The case against the appellants was registered on the basis of the first information statement given to the police by the fourth respondent/de facto complainant. The material averments in the first information statement can be stated as follows:

On 12.09.2019, at about 21.30 hours, while the de facto complainant was proceeding through a public road and when he reached the place Parayankavu Junction, the accused reached there on two motor cycles. They stopped the motor cycles in front of the de facto complainant and obstructed him. The first accused abused him by using obscene words and beat him on the head with a wooden piece causing injury above his right eye and the forehead. The first accused