Injuries sustained by accused not explained by prosecution.

1. TheJudgment of the Court was delivered by M.Karpagavinayagam, J.:

This is a case of double murder.

2. Theappellants are A-1 to A-6. A-1 and A-2 have been convicted for the offences under Sec.302 read with 34, I.P.C. in respect of the first deceased Shanmugam. A-1 and A-3 have been convicted for the offences under Sec.302 read with 34, I.P.C. in respect of the second deceased Krishnan. A-1, A-3, A-5 and A-6 have been convicted for the offence under Sec. 147, I.P.C. and A-2 and A-3 have been convicted for the offence under Sec. 148, I.P.C. A-3 to A-6 have been convicted for the offence under Sec.302 read with 149, I.P.C. in respect of the first deceased. A-2, A-4, A-5 and A-6 have been convicted for the offence under Sec.302 read with 149, I.P.C. in respect of the second deceased. A-1 to A-6 have been convicted for the offence under Sec.324, I.P.C. Challenging the above conviction, this appeal has been filed.

3. Thecase of the prosecution in brief is as follows:

“(a) First appellant (A-1) Nagarathinam is the father. Second appellant (A-2) Sankar and third appellant (A-3) Thirunavukkarasu are his sons. The appellants 4 to 6 (A-4 to A-6) by name Srinivasan alias Kutty, Gnanasekaran and Ganesan are their relatives. First deceased Shanmugam and second deceased Krishnan are the brothers. Their paternal uncle Rajendran is the Panchayat Board President of Maiyoor village.

(b) A-1 Nagarathinam and other accused constructed a brick-kiln in the land belonging to the Gangaiamman temple and indulged themselves in the business of sale of bricks. The villagers opposed the same. They reported the matter to Rajendran, Panchayat Board President. Then, Rajendran enquired (2004) 1 MLJ (Crl) 830 at 832 about the complaint against A-1. A-1 did not make proper reply. Therefore, he lodged a report with B.D.O.(P.W.8). After conducting enquiry, the B.D.O. imposed fine of Rs.25,000. However, the fine was not paid. So, the Panchayat Board President filed a civil suit and obtained a decree against the first accused.

(c) The villagers collected Rs.12,000 for temple festival and entrusted the same for safe custody to A-1. No proper accounts were maintained by him. Therefore, in order to get back the amount from him, the Panchayat Board President Rajendran convened a meeting on 22.7.1990 at about 5.00 p.m. to take further action against A-1.

(d) Having felt insulted and aggrieved over the convening of the meeting, all the accused formed themselves into unlawful assembly and gathered in front of Vedachalam Tea Shop on the same day at 3.00 p.m. and challenged the authority of Rajendran to convene the meeting and abused other villagers.

(e) Shanmugam, the first deceased, who is the nephew of Rajendran was present at that time near the tea shop. He questioned A-1 as to why he had to abuse Rajendran and if any grievance he had, he could express the same in the meeting to be held at 5.00 p.m.

(f) Getting enraged over the words uttered by the first deceased Shanmugam, A-1 Nagarathinam came near the first deceased and caught hold of him by his hands from back side and asked the other accused to finish him once for all. Then, A-2 Sankar took out a knife (M.O.6) kept in the tea stall and gave a stab on his stomach. The first deceased with bleeding injury on the stomach fell down and became unconscious. At that time, the second deceased Krishnan came that side after finishing his agricultural work in the field along with his bull. On noticing this incident, the second deceased came near the first accused and cried. When he tried to lift the first deceased, A-1 with M.O.1 Thadi beat on the head of the second deceased. A-3 Thirunavukkarasu with another Thadi M.O.2 beat on his shoulder. The second deceased also fell down.

(g) P.W.1 Gajendran, P.W.2 Elumalai, P.W.3 Paramasivam and P.W.10 Chandran were sitting near the tea stall opposite to the bus stop. When D-1 and D-2 fell down, they went near them in order to lift them. The accused threatened them. On