R.Balasubramanian, J.

Eight persons were tried in S.C.No.202/2000 on the file of the Additional District Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No.II, Coimbatore for various offences, including an offence under section 302 I.P.C. (A1 to A4); 302 read with 149 I.P.C. (A5 to A7) and 302 read with 109 I.P.C. (A8). For the offence of murder as referred to above, A1 to A4 were found guilty and they stand sentenced to death; the rest of the accused stand sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. On account of the death sentence having been imposed, there is a Statutory reference before this court and it is taken on file as R.T.No.1/2003. A1 and A5 have filed C.A.No.122/2003; A2, A3, A6 and A7 have filed C.A.No.123/2003 and A4 and A8 have filed C.A.No.124/2003. Since all the appeals and the referred trial arise out of one sessions case, we are inclined to dispose of the same by this common judgment.

2. The case of the prosecution is that at about 9.00 p.m on 29.11.1997, as a sequel to the incident that had taken place at 8.10 p.m in the Investigating Police Station, one Selvaraj, a police constable (traffic) on duty was stabbed to death. The charges as framed against the accused are as follows:

A1 to A4 : Section 148 I.P.C.

A5 to A7 : Section 147 I.P.C.

A1 to A4 : Section 302 I.P.C.

A5 to A7 : Section 302 r/w 149 I.P.C.

A8 : Section 302 r/w 109 I.P.C.

To substantiate the charge, the prosecution examined P.Ws.1 to 8, 14 and 15 as eye witnesses to the occurrence, out of whom, P.Ws.14 and 15 turned hostile.

3. To understand the prosecution case, we summarise hereunder the evidence of P.W.1:

"Around 9.00 p.m on 29.11.1997, to buy vegetables, I had gone to the market at Ukkadam; I crossed the road and at that time I saw 7 or 8 persons coming to the main road from Vincent Road loudly abusing the police personnel; out of them, 5 were armed with knife and I know three among them; A1, A2 and A3 are known to me and they are present in court (the witness identifies A1 to A3 in court); all the 8 persons, who came from Vincent Road, reached the centre of the road at Ukkadam, where there is a police traffic umbrella; Selvaraj/since deceased was regulating traffic standing in that police umbrella; A1 abused him in a filthy language looking at him and further challenged him as to how the police can assault their leader namely, Amar in the police station?; saying so, A1 climbed the police traffic umbrella and then pushed down Selvaraj; Selvaraj fell down; he tried to regain position and at that time A2 with a knife attacked him on the right side of his neck followed by A1 stabbing twice on his right side chest; this was followed by A3 with a knife in his hand stabbing on the left side chest twice; the other two persons, who were also armed at that time, joined A1 to A3 and all of them indiscriminately stabbed Selvaraj; Selvaraj was initially attempting to thwart the attack by extending his arms; ultimately he fell down; on seeing him falling down, all the 8 accused made good their escape by running towards Pollachi Road; there was an electric tower lamp post near the scene, where there was a number of sodium lamps burning; about twenty feet away, another police constable was on duty (P.W.8); he came to the spot and tried to lift Selvaraj and at that time, Selvaraj's head was hanging down; he was bleeding; the police constable put Selvaraj in an autorickshaw and took him to the Government Hospital; on my way, I entered a bakery and I had a cup of tea; I took a paper from there and then requested another person, who was taking tea in the bakery, to write down the complaint to my narration; he reduced that complaint into writing, in which I signed in the bakery itself and gave it in B1 Police Station (Investigating Police Station) where the Head Constable was there; Ex.P.1 is the said complaint; I was given, under acknowlegement, a copy of the printed first information report and I was asked by the said Head Constable to come to the police station the ne