Apprehension of accused in pursuance of confession as to the whereabouts of the co-accused to the police is an admissible evidence.

Per J.A.K. SAMPATHKUMAR, J.

The Criminal Appeal and Criminal Revision were filed against the order of the Principal Sessions Judge, Chennai in S.C. No. 485 of 1999 dated 23.1.2002 in and by which the learned Sessions Judge acquitted the respondents/accused under Section 234(1) Cr. P.C. for the charges levelled against them.

2. The case of the prosecution is briefly as follows:

(1) P.W.1 Sengottaiyan is the husband of the deceased Annapoornam. P.W.2 Ramesh is the son of P.W.1 and the deceased. P.W.1 was working as Chief Engineer, T.N.E.B. and retired from service on 31.5.1997. His son P.W.2 is also working as Assistant Engineer in T.N.E.B. On 21.11. 1996 as usual P.W.1 and P.W.2 went to the office. They were residing at No. E1 Power Apartment, 47, Periyar Road, T.Nagar, Chennai-17. P.W.3 Tmt. Selvakumari is residing at D-5, Power Apartment. Her husband Veerapan was working in T.N.E.B.

(2) On 21.1.1996 at noon 12.00 o’clock P.W.3 went to the house of P.W. 1. At 12.15 hrs. after finishing the work, servant maid Jaya returned to her house. The deceased Annapoornam asked P.W.3 to apply medicine for eye sour. At 12.30 Hrs. P.W. 3 went to her house after applying medicine.

(3) At 3.45 p.m. when the servant maid Jaya came to the house of the deceased, the door was not opened. So Jaya called P.W.3 and both went to the house of the deceased. P.W.3 also knocked the door and pressed the calling bell. But the door was not opened. They took, one Masilamani, Carpenter who was working there, at the back side of the house and they found that the door was opened. They entered the house and saw the deceased lying unconscious on the floor in the bed room of P.W.2. Ear stud, Bangles and Thali were missing from the person of the deceased. One Vijayalakshmi who was residing at ‘D’ Block 1 informed her father Balakrishnan who was working with P.W.2 that the deceased Annapoornam was found unconscious. P.W.1 received a message from that Balakrishnan at 4.15 p.m. P.W. 1 contacted the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Basker and rushed to his residence with his son P.W.2. At that time P.W.1’s Wife Annapoornam was taken to the hospital in a maruti van. As per the advice of Dr. Baskar they took the deceased to the Appollo Hospital.

(4) P.W. 6 Dr.C. Paul Dhillipkumar, who was working as casualty Medial Officer, Appollo Hospital examined the deceased Annapoornam and declared that she was brought dead. P.W.6 issued accident register copy Ex.P.12. He also issued a memo of intimation Ex.P.13 to police for investigation. P.W.6 noted the injuries and found that left ear lobe cut transversely, scratch marks on left side of chest and right side of neck, bruise over left side of chest on upper one third of sternus and bog swelling over right malar-region. He saw linear bruise marks on left side of neck, ear lobe torn and the stud removed and the right side stud was also removed both weighing about ½ sovereigns made of American Diamonds, stolen. Further Thali with chain all made of gold weighing about 10 sovereigns and bangles weighing about 3 sovereigns (each 1½ sovereign) and one ring made of coral weighing ½ sovereign were found missing on 21.11.96.

(5) P.W.11 Palanivelu was working as Inspector; law and Order, R-4 Police Station. He received a message from the control room that one Annapoornam was brought dead to the Apollo hospital. The P.W. 11 went to Apollo hospital at 17.30 p.m. on the same day. He enquired P.W.l. P.W.1 gave written complaint Ex.p-1 to P.W.11. P.W.11 came to the police station and registered a case in Cr.No.2465/96 under Sections 302 and 380 I.P.C. about 18.00 hrs. Since the case was murder for gain, he handed over the investigation to the Inspector, Crime Branch, Murthy, P.W.12. Ex.P-24 is the printed F.I.R.

(6) P.W.I. gave another complaint Ex.P2 mentioning the list of jewels which were found missing. On 5.12.1996 P.W.I. also gave another complaint mentioning the list of articles which were found missing.

(7) P.W.12 took up the investigation at abou