Govinda Menon, J.-Accused I and 2 in S. C. No. 107 of 1949 on the file of the Court of Session, Coimbatore division, have been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of one Giri Gowda just after dusk on the 23rd October, 1948, at the village of Doddinduvadi in Coimbatore district. They were also convicted under section 201, Indian Penal Code, for causing disappearance of the evidence of murder. There were two other charges, viz, that against first accused with having caused simple hurt to Siddha Chetty (P.W.3) and the second accused with having caused simple hurt to Siddha Gowda (P.W.1). For these minor offences the first accused was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two months and the second accused also to rigorous imprisonment for the same period. The third accused who is the appellant in C. A. No. 650 of 1949 was found guilty of an offence under section 201, Indian Penal Code, along with accused 1 and 2 and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years. The referred trial and the appeals by the accused have been heard together and we have heard arguments from Mr. V. Rajagopalachari for accused 1 and 2 and from Mr. P.S.Balakrishna Aiyar for the third accused. As the facts and circumstances are so interconnected that it will be convenient to deal with the two appeals together we do not intend to deliver separate judgments in each of the appeals.

Shortly put, the prosecution case is that accused 1 and 2 were on inimical terms with the deceased Giri Gowda and therefore they, along with a number of other people, lay in wait on the evening of the 23rd October, 1948, when Giri Gowda was returning from Kollegal to his village, waylaid him, dragged him out of the jutka in which he was travelling and then the first accused stabbed him and the second accused beat him. Thereafter he was carried to a nearby place where again he was stabbed and beaten as a result of which he expired. It is further stated that after sometime both accused 1 and 2 exclaimed that Giri Gowda was dead and therefore they should carry him away. The evidence in the case further proves that he was carried away from the scene of crime and later on has not been heard of at all. We shall therefore set out shordy the prosecution evidence on which we are asked to infer that Giri Gowda has been murdered by accused 1 and 2. At about 7 or 8 a.m. on 23rd October, 1948, Giri Gowda went in a jutka to Kollegal which was 7 miles from his village and after finishing his business he left Kollegal at about 5-30 p.m. on that day. He was accompanied in his jutka which was-driven by P. W. 3 by two friends of his, P.Ws.1 and 4. All the four of them neared the village of Giri Gowda and when at the junction of the Kollegal Road and the minor road which branches off north along which Giri Gowda had to proceed to his village, P.W.2 got down. P.Ws.1 and 4 and the deceased were in the jutka which was driven by P.W.3. As they proceeded a little further in the direction of the village of Doddinduvadi, according to the evidence let in it was about 7 p.m. and there was no light. It is further stated that they were nearing a village school and were in the road in front of the village school which is marked in the plan Ex. P-6. It is then stated that accused 1 and 2 came from a place near the school. The first accused caught hold of the reins of the horse while the second accused tried to get into the jutka by climbing on the wheel.. P. W.3, the jutka man, asked the first accused to let go the reins of the horse. Giri Gowda also asked the first accused to leave the reins. But the first accused did not. pay any attention and tried to get into the jutka, whereupon he was obstructed by P. W. 3. The first accused fisted P.W.3 on his testicles and he fell down. It was stated that the first accused was armed with a bichuwa and the second accused with a stick. As soon as P.W.3 fell down P.W.4 who was in the jutka got: down, went and stood at a little distance. As the jutka wa