S. Nagamuthu, J.

Dr. M.G. Ramachandran, popularly known as “MGR” was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu till his demise in the month of December, 1987. After his demise, for some time, his wife, Mrs. Janaki Ammal was in politics leading the political party founded by Dr. MGR.

2. Mrs. Janaki Ammal had a brother by name Mr. Mani @ Narayanan. Mr. Narayanan had seven children, who were all well settled in life. P.W.15 Mrs. Latha Rajendran, P.W.2 Mrs. Sudha Vijayakumar and the first accused Mrs. Banu Sridhar are the daughters of Mr. Narayanan. P.W.3-Mr.Ramachandran @ Raja @ Deepan is the son of Mr. Narayanan. During the life time of Dr. MGR, P.W.15, one Geetha Madhu Mohan, P.W.2-Mrs.Sudha Vijayakumar and yet another daughter of Mr. Narayanan by name Janaki Sivaraman were all residing in the house of Dr. MGR and Mrs. Janaki Ammal at Ramavaram Gardens. P.W.3-Mr.Ramachandran @ Raja, the first accused Mrs.Banu and another daughter of Mr. Narayanan by name Manu were all residing in the house belonging to Mr. Narayanan in Lake Area at Nungambakkam.

3. The deceased in this case was one Mr. Vijayakumar. He was married to P.W.2 in the year 1980. For a long time, he was in employment and after the demise of Dr. MGR, the deceased became the personal assistant to Mrs. Janaki Ammal in her political activities. P.W.2 was running a primary school near Ramavaram Gardens and the deceased was looking after the same.

4. Dr. MGR had left behind a Will. As per the said Will, Mrs. Janaki Ammal was given life interest over the property situated in Ramavaram Gardens. After her, according to the Will, the properties should be taken by Mr. Janaki Sivaraman, Radha Gopalakrishnan, Nirmala Ravindran and P.W.2-Mrs.Sudha Vijayakumar for life and after that the said property will go to their legal heirs absolutely. Late N.C. Ragavachari, a leading lawyer of the Madras Bar, who was appointed as the Administrator, for some reason or the other, declined to continue as the Administrator and therefore as per the terms of the Will Mr. Rajendran (P.W.14), the husband of P.W.15 Mrs. Latha Rajendran, became the administrator. In due course, there arose dispute between P.W.14 and the deceased in respect of the administration of the Will. Mrs. Janaki Ammal also passed away.

5. The property dispute between the legal heirs of Mr. Narayanan landed in a number of litigations in the High Court and other Courts. Mr. Narayanan during his life time was running six educational institutions. He died in 2004. During his life time, Narayanan had appointed P.W.3 Mr. Ramachandran @ Raja @ Deepan as the sole trustee for all these schools. The first accused was the Principal of one of the schools. She had a grievance that no property of Mr. Narayanan was given to her. Therefore, she questioned the authority of P.W.3 to be the trustee of all the six schools. This again gave raise to yet another litigation between P.W.3 and the first accused. Because of these litigations, there arose a very strong enmity between P.W.3 and the first accused. The other family members, who are the legal heirs of Mr. Narayanan, also got divided on account of the above litigations. The deceased-Vijayakumar, had been aiding P.W.3, had helped him arrange advocates to represent P.W.3 in the Courts of law and was guiding P.W.3 and had been taking care of his interest in all the litigations. The first accused was enraged over the said activities of the deceased. On few occasions, she requested and even went to the extent of warning the deceased not to support P.W.3. She was under the impression that because of the full support extended by the deceased, P.W.3 was very adamant and so he was refusing to come to terms with her. This enmity is stated to be the motive for the occurrence.

6. The deceased was having his office at Bimanna Mudali Street at Alwarpet, Chennai and he was residing with P.W.2 and his son (P.W.