S. Nagamuthu, J.

1. The appellants in Crl. A. No. 874 of 2016 are accused 3 and 4 and the appellants in Crl. A. No. 76 of 2017 are the accused 2 and 5 in S.C. No. 48 of 2012 on the file of the learned Sessions Judge No. II, Kancheepuram. The first accused was one Mr. Kumar. The trial Court framed as many as three charges against them as detailed below:

S. No. of charge	Charges framed against	Charges framed under Section
1	A1 to A5	450 of IPC
2	A1 to A5	395 r/w 397 of IPC
3	A1 to A5	302 of IPC

By judgment dated 31.07.2015, the trial Court convicted all the five accused under all the three charges and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- each in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year for the offence under Section 450 I.P.C. to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- each in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year for offence under Section 397 I.P.C. and to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs. 1000/- each in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year for offence under Section 302 I.P.C. Challenging the said conviction and sentence, the accused 2 to 5 are before this Court with these two appeals.

2. The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows:

2.1. There is a temple known as "Pooniamman Temple" at Thirumangalam Kandigai Village in Kancheepuram district. The deceased in this case was one Mr. Subramani. He used to sleep in front of the temple during night hours everyday. On 02.01.2010 around 11.00 p.m. it is alleged that all these five accused, broke open the main door of the temple, trespassed into the same, broke open the hundi kept inside the temple and committed robbery of Rs. 500/- from the said hundi. On hearing the noise, the deceased, who was sleeping in front of the temple, tried to raise alarm. All the five accused, with a view to escape from the said place with decamped amount, surrounded him. The accused 3 to 5 caught him hold and the second accused, attacked him with a wooden reaper on the back of the head and the first accused attacked him with a crowbar on his head. The deceased fell down and died instantaneously. Abandoning the dead body at the same place, all the five accused fled away from the scene of occurrence. The occurrence was not witnessed by anyone.

2.2. PW-6 a resident of Kandigai village, used to visit the temple around 06.15 a.m. everyday for darshan. As usual, on 03.01.2010, he went to the temple. Just in front of the temple, he found the deceased lying dead with injuries on his head. Immediately, he rushed to the house of PW-3 and informed him about the same. PW-3 in turn informed PW-1 who was the husband of the then Village Panchayat Board President. PW-1 rushed to the place of occurrence and found the deceased lying dead. Inside the temple, he found the hundi broken open and the currency notes and coins had been stolen. Then, he went to Sunguarchathiram Police Station at 08.00 a.m. on 03.01.2010 and made a complaint. A case was registered on the same in Crime No. 8 of 2010 under Sections 457, 380 and 302 I.P.C. Ex.P1 is the complaint and Ex.P20 is the F.I.R. He forwarded both the documents to the Court and the same was received by the learned Magistrate at 04.30 p.m. on 03.01.2010.

2.3. The case was taken up for investigation by PW-18 the then Inspector of Police. He went to the place of occurrence and prepared an observation mahazar and a rough sketch. At his request, PW-11, the forensic expert, visited the place of occurrence and with his assistants, PW-18 recovered the bloodstain earth and sample earth from the place of occurrence. He held inquest on the body of the deceased and forwarded the same for postmortem.

2.4. PW-14 Dr. Yamuna conducted autopsy on the body o