The court upheld the conviction based on confessional statements, seizure of stolen property, and corroborative evidence, and considered the accused's imprisonment and fine already served, waiving the remaining imprisonment.

The brief facts of the prosecution case are as follows:-

1. On 16.12.2005, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the accused 1 to 4 trespassed into the defacto complainant's house, situated at Narikattu Garden, Arachalur, and had stolen 6 sovereigns of gold thali chain, 2 pairs of ear-studs, 1 finger ring worth about Rs.32,000/-and cash of Rs.18,000/-. Therefore, the defacto complainant had lodged a complaint before the respondent police.

2. On the side of the prosecution, 13 witnesses had been examined and 18 documents were marked and 14 material objects were produced.

3. The accused had denied the charges and declared they are innocent. Hence, the case had been tried.

4. P.W.1. had adduced evidence stating that he is living at P.M.Poondurai, with his wife and children. On 16.12.2005, they had dinner at 8 p.m., and went to bed. At about 9 p.m., they heard some sound inside the house and after hearing the sound, they searched inside the house thoroughly. They found the almirah was broken open and found the lockers also damaged. When they searched inside the almirah, they found that a thali chain weighing 7 sovereigns, a ring weighing 1 sovereign, 2 pairs of ear-studs weighing 1 sovereign were missing. They also found cash of Rs.18,000/- missing. P.W.1 further stated that the stolen property was worth about Rs.50,000/- and since it was night hours, he did not opt to go to the police station immediately and therefore, he went to the police station on 17.12.2005, in the morning and lodged a complaint, which was marked as Ex.P1. The respondent police came to the scene of occurrence and the fingerprint experts also examined the place of occurrence. The very next evening, P.W.1's mother-in-law and father-in-law came to the house, i.e., occurrence place and they reported that the 'thali gold chain' weighs only six sovereigns. Therefore, P.W.1 came to know that the weight of the missing ornaments was only 8 sovereigns, and this was reported to the police station subsequently. On 29.03.2006, the respondent police informed P.W.1 that the stolen properties were recovered and asked him to come to the police station to identify the same. P.W.1 went to the police station and identified the stolen property.

5. P.W.1 further stated that the respondent police came to the occurrence place and conducted an enquiry. The 'Thali' chain was marked as M.O.1, the ear-studs was marked as M.O.2 and one more ear-stud was marked as M.O.3. A gold ring was marked as M.O.4. P.W.1 further stated that the P.W.2, viz., Chidambaram, P.W.4-Shanmugam, P.W.7-Chinnasamy, P.W.8-Samiatthan came to the occurrence place after hearing about the incident.

6. P.W.13-the Inspector of Police, who is attached to the Arachalur Police Station had registered the complaint, which was lodged by P.W.1, as Crime No.240 of 2005, for the offence under Section 380 of I.P.C. The F.I.R. was marked as Ex.P13. The complaint and F.I.R were sent to the Court. P.W.13 further stated that he had rushed to the occurrence place on 17.12.2005 at about 9.30 a.m., and he had prepared observation mahazar in the presence of the witnesses, P.W.5-Mohanraj and P.W.6-Somasundaram. The observation mahazar was marked as Ex.P2 and the rough sketch was marked as Ex.P14. P.W.13 further stated that he had conducted enquiry and collected statements from the witnesses. As per his enquiry, through witnesses, he came to know that 8 sovereigns gold ornaments and Rs.18,000/-cash were missing. But, as per complaint lodged by P.W.1, it had been mentioned that 11 sovereigns gold ornaments were missing. P.W.13 further stated that on 14.03.2006, at about 8.15 p.m., when he was carrying out his duty at Karur Road, the accused Sadasivam, Balu @ Balachandran, Meganathan and 9 other accused came to the place in a vehicle with deadly weapons. The P.W.13 intercepted the vehicle and interrogated them and he came to know that all the accused had planned to commit dacoity. Immediately, the accused were arrested and brought to th