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2020 Supreme(Mad) 1156
IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADRAS AT MADURAI BENCH
P.N. PRAKASH, B. PUGALENDHI, JJ.
Satham Hussain and Others – Appellants
Versus
State – Respondent
Crl. Appeal (MD) Nos. 163, 196 of 2018
Decided On : 18-05-2020
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellants : V. Kathirvelu, S.M.A. Jinnah, Veera Kathiravan for R. Manickaraj.
For the Respondent: K.K. Ramakrishnan.
Headnote:
Indian Penal Code, 180 – Section 342, 364, 379, 394, 397 and 302 – Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 – Sections 207 and 164 – Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act – Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation – F.I.R – Evidence Act – Section 114 and 27 – Illustration – Elopement and Abandonment – Simple Imprisonment – Mobile Wing of the Tamil Nadu Forensic Sciences Laboratory – Requisitioned services of Kumar attached to Mobile Wing of Tamil Nadu Forensic Sciences Laboratory and with his assistance retrieved a bloodstained Samsung cell phone and a bloodstained note from shirt pocket of deceased besides a pair of VKC Pride slippers from his person. From dash board of Maruti van retrieved copy and certificate of insurance and also an Exide battery from Maruti van and aforesaid items were seized under cover of mahazar – Held, Court discovery of knife was not based on confession statement of Suresh confession statement of Suresh (A.2) led to discovery of a person called Raja. Raja is neither an accused nor was he examined as a witness statement of Raja, police recovered knife law governing contours of has been elaborately expatiated in the article – Afterlife of Athappa Goundan-Raju Manjhi penned by Mr. Sharath Chandran Advocate, wherein – Prosecution has failed to prove that Satham Hussain and Suresh knew each other establish that Satham Hussain and Suresh were friends prosecution examined Salim Raja Raja Sahul Ravichandran (PW-26) and Balamurugan – But, unfortunately, all of them turned hostile and did not support prosecution case – Satham Hussain examined two witnesses, viz. Mushtaq Ahmad (DW-1) and Sheik Dawood (DW-2), to show that he was picked up from Chennai and not Madurai, as alleged by police – Criminal appeals are allowed.
JUDGMENT :
1. Inasmuch as both the instant criminal appeals emanate from the same F.I.R. and judgment and order, they are considered and decided by this common judgment.
2. The facts in a nutshell leading to the institution of these criminal appeals are as under:
2.1. The prosecution story is that Arumugam (PW-3) was the Watchman in Dr. City Residential Complex at Ulaganeri in Madurai-Trichy four-way lane; the said four-way lane runs near the said complex; around 7.00 a.m. on 29.03.2015, Arumugam (PW-3) noticed a white colour Maruti Omni van (M.O.7) (for brevity “the Maruti Van”) bearing Regn. No. TN-07H-1372, parked in the mud road adjacent to the four-way lane near Dr. City Residential Complex; again, in the evening, around 8.00 p.m., when he came for duty, the Maruti van (M.O.7) was found at the same place and that aroused suspicion in his mind; he informed Kannan (PW-1), V.A.O. who came along with Pandi (PW-2), Village Assistant, to the said place around 11 p.m. Kannan (PW-1), Pandi (PW-2) and Arumugam (PW-3) peeped into the Maruti van (M.O.7) and found a dead body in it. Kannan (PW-1) gave a written complaint (Ex.P.1), based on which, Vairavasundaram (PW-37), Special Sub-Inspector of Police, registered a case in E-1, K. Pudur Police Station Cr. No. 317 of 2015 at 1.00 a.m. on 30.03.2015 under Section 302 IPC and prepared the printed FIR (Ex.P.29) against unknown accused.
2.2. The FIR reached the jurisdictional Magistrate at 6.00 a.m. on 30.03.2015, as could be seen from the endorsement thereon. Meanwhile, the investigation of the case was taken over by Chakravarthy (PW-50), Inspector of Police, who went to the place at 1.45 a.m. on 30.03.2015 and in the presence of witnesses, Kannan (PW-1) and Pandi (PW-2), prepared the observation mahazar (Ex.P.2) and rough sketch (Ex.P.45).
2.3. Chakravarthy (PW-50) requisitioned the services of Kumar (PW-35) attached to the Mobile Wing of the Tamil Nadu Forensic Sciences Laboratory (for brevity “the TNFSL”) and with his assistance, retrieved a bloodstained Samsung cell phone (M.O.3) and a bloodstained 500 rupee note (M.O.5) from the shirt pocket of the deceased, besides a pair of VKC Pride slippers (M.O.4) from his person. From the dash board of the Maruti van (M.O.7), he retrieved the copy of the R.C. book (Ex.P.4) and certificate of insurance (Ex.P.5) and also an Exide battery (M.O.6) from the Maruti van (M.O.7). The Maruti van (M.O.7) and the aforesaid items were seized under the cover of mahazar (Ex.P.3). The mahazar (Ex.P.3) reached the jurisdictional Magistrate on 31.03.2015, as could be seen from the endorsement thereon. Added to this, Chakravarthy (PW-50) has stated that he recovered a bus ticket bearing no. ECC 29-45844 (M.O.10) issued by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation from the shirt pocket of the deceased.
2.4. Chakravarthy (PW-50) sent the seized items under Form No. 91 (Ex.P.46) to the Judicial Magistrate No. VI, Madurai, on 30.03.2015. Since the identity of the deceased was not known, he did not conduct inquest at the spot and instead, despatched the body through Ramakrishnan (PW-34), Head Constable 1012, to the mortuary in the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. From the Samsung mobile phone (M.O.3) of the deceased, he found out a mobile number 7639806121 and called that number. The call was attended by one Ramar (PW-6), who turned out to be the younger brother of the deceased and through him, the police learnt that the deceased was one Karuppusamy. The relatives of the deceased came to the Government Rajaji Hospital, where, Chakravarthy (PW-50) conducted inquest over the body of the deceased from 9.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. on 30.03.2015.
2.5. During inquest, it came to light that the deceased Karuppusamy was the son of Veeraiah (PW-4) and Valli (PW-5); his family was from Mosukkudi village in Paramakudi Taluk in Ramanathapuram District; he worked abroad and return
