R. Balasubramanian, J.

Three persons stand sentenced to death. Therefore, on a Statutory reference, the referred trial is before us. Each of the convicted accused has filed a separate appeal privately and those three appeals are also before us. Since the referred trial and the three appeals arise out of one sessions case, we have taken all the above referred to proceedings for a common disposal. Heard Mr.B.Sriramulu, learned senior counsel appearing for the first accused (A1); Mr.K.S.Dinakaran, learned counsel appearing for the second accused (A2); Mr.V.Gopinath, learned senior counsel appearing for the third accused (A3) and Mr.N.R.Elango, learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the State.

2. The prosecution case is that the accused criminally trespassed into the house of the deceased at about 9.00 p.m on 011. 2005; A3 murdered Mohan Rao, one of the deceased and A1 and A2 abetted the commission of the crime; in the course of the same transaction, all the three accused fatally attacked Prabhu (son of Mohan Rao) and Sheela (wife of Mohan Rao and mother of Prabhu) and decamped with a cash of Rs.22,000/-; jewellery weighing 163.25 sovereigns and silverware weigh