The central legal point established in the judgment is the application of Section 355 of IPC in cases where the accused's act results in injury but without the intention to cause death.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Criminal Appeal filed under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, against the judgment of conviction and sentence imposed upon the appellants by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Krishnagiri, Krishnagiri District, in S.C.No.75 of 2019 dated 18.08.2020.)

1. The present appeal has been filed by the appellants / accused 1 & 2 against the judgment of conviction and sentence imposed upon them by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Krishnagiri, Krishnagiri District, in S.C.No.75 of 2019 dated 18.08.2020.

2. The appellants herein are arrayed as accused No.1 & 2 respectively in the above referred sessions case. They stood charged for the offence punishable under Section 302 r/w 34 of IPC. After a full fledged trial, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Krishnagiri found the appellants / accused 1 & 2 guilty under Section 304 (ii) r/w 34 of IPC. Accordingly, they were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.25,000/- each, in default to undergo 6 months simple imprisonment, further ordered to return the fine amount to the wife of the deceased as compensation under Section 357(1) of Cr.P.C.

3. Challenging the said conviction and sentence, the accused 1 & 2 are before this Court with the present criminal appeal.

4. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is as follows:-

(i) On 22.07.2018 at about 11.15 a.m., when at the time P.W.3-Palani and the deceased Chakkravarthi while going near Kollapuri Mariamman Temple, both of them were conversing with each other. During such time, at Thirumurthy coconut grove, the workers were peeling off the coconut with the help of crowbar and at the same time, the accused-Rajasekar(A1) was digging up the soil from the land of Appadurai. The said Appadurai is none other than the younger brother of the deceased Chakkravarthi and the accused Rajasekar and Suresh are the sons of the said Appadurai. On seeing the same, the deceased told to A1 that there was some dispute in respect to the land wherein the first accused dug the soil. After hearing the same, the first accused got angry and scolded Chakkravarthi in filthy language, further called his brother Suresh(A2) over phone and later both the accused have beaten the Chakkravarthi with coconut bat () and they chased him. While at the time the deceased got afraid by the act of the accused, he attempted to run to the land of Thirumurthy-P.W.4. In this occasion, both the accused chased the deceased and pushed him on the crowbar. After seeing the same that the deceased was fallen on the crowbar, the first accused requested the P.W.5 to bring his tata sumo car and later they lifted the deceased from the crowbar and boarded him on the tata sumo car. Thereafter all of them took the deceased to the hospital, wherein P.W.3-Palani intimated the incident to the wife of the deceased and P.W.7-Arunadevi, who is the daughter of the deceased. In the meantime, P.W.1-Prabu came there, he also saw the occurrence and thereafter he along with P.W.3 followed the tata sumo car in a two wheeler. Afterwards, the deceased was admitted in TCR hospital and later referred to Government Hospital, Krishnagiri, wherein the deceased was declared dead. Thereafter, P.W.1 lodged a complaint under Ex.P1 before the respondent police.

(ii) On receipt of the complaint, P.W.16-Govindharajan, the then Sub Inspector of Police, Nagarasampatti Police Station, on 22.07.2018 at 15.00 hrs, registered a case as against the appellants/accused in crime No.134 of 2018 under Section 302 of IPC. The printed F.I.R. is marked as Ex.P10. After registering the case, he forwarded the copy of the F.I.R. to the Inspector of Police for investigation.

(iii) On receipt of the copy of the F.I.R. from P.W.16, P.W.18-Kabilan, the then Inspector of Police took the same for investigation. On the same day around 5.00 p.m., he went to the place of occurrence and in the presence of P.W.11-Suresh and one, Madhan-P.W.9, he pre