The conviction of the accused for the murders was upheld, as the prosecution provided credible eyewitness testimony and corroborative medical evidence establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

JUDGMENT :

N.ANAND VENKATESH, J.

This criminal appeal has been filed assailing the judgment of the Fast Track Mahila Court, Virudhunagar District, made in S.C. No.214 of 2013, dated 29.03.2021, wherein the appellant was convicted and sentenced in the following manner:

The above sentences were ordered to run consecutively.

2. The case of the prosecution is that the accused person fell in love with one Muneeshwari and married her. The accused person was suspecting his wife on the ground that she was having an illicit relationship with the deceased Sakthi Ganesan. The said Sakthi Ganesan had a wordy altercation with the accused. At one stage, the wife of the accused person not able to take it anymore committed suicide by setting herself ablaze, along with two children. An FIR came to be registered in Crime No.58 of 2013 for offences under Sections 498A and 306 of IPC.

3. With the above motive in mind, on 14.04.2013 at about 7.00 p.m., the accused was sitting near a water tank adjacent to Aaha Hotel with an intention to murder Sakthi Ganesan. He attacked him with bill hook (MO1). The deceased, in order to save his life, ran towards Therkuppatti and the accused chased him and hacked him on his back. The mother of Sakthi Ganesan, namely Muthupechi; the wife of Sakthi Ganesan, namely Rajalakshmi @ Lakshmi; and Sakthi Ganesan's daughter Parasakthi were sitting at the corner of the house alley. They saw the deceased running for his life and he stumbled and fell down in front of PW3’s firewood shop. The accused hacked him with MO1 all over the body, by abusing him that only because of him his entire family was ruined. Sakthi Ganesan died on the spot. Muthupechi and Rajalakshmi screamed for help. On seeing them, the accused person hacked them with MO1 and as a result, Muthupechi and Rajalakshmi sustained grievous injuries. The wife of Sakthi Ganesan, Lakshmi died on 16.04.2013 and the mother of Sakthi Ganesan, Muthupechi died on 22.05.2013.

4. For the sake of convenience, Sakthi Ganesan will be identified as D1, Rajalakshmi @ Lakshmi will be identified as D2 and Muthupechi will be identified as D3.

5. The defacto complainant/PW1 is the sister of D1. She, along with others, took D2 and D3 to Virudhunagar Government Hospital from where they were referred to Madurai Government Hospital. PW1 gave a complaint (Ex.P1) to PW24 at about 00.30 hours on 15.04.2013. Based on which, an FIR came to be registered in Crime No.124 of 2013 for offences under Sections 302, 307, 352, 336 and 506(2) of IPC.

6. PW25 took up the investigation and went to the scene of crime and prepared the observation mahazar (Ex.P15) and the rough sketches (Exs.P16 and P23) in the presence of witnesses. He also recovered MO8 and MO9 under mahazar Ex.P19 in front of PW1’s house. He also recovered MO4 and MO5 in front of the firewood shop where D1 was hacked to death under mahazar (Ex.P17). He also recovered MO6 and MO7 under mahazar (Ex.P18).

7. PW25 conducted the inquest on the body of D1 and prepared the inquest report (Ex.P20) in the presence of panchayathars. He made arrangement to send the body of D1 for postmortem. The postmortem was conducted by PW20 and the postmortem certificate (Ex.P8) was issued. The following injuries were noted in the postmortem certificate:

“External Injuries

1.Right upper limb – The hand disarticulated and hanging just above the level of wrist.

2.Left upper limb – Cut and disarticulated partially at the level of elbow and forearm is hanging.

3.Left foot – Cut injury from the middle of dorsum extending medially up to the medial border of sole of foot, exposing the bones.

4.Cut injury in the right shoulder about 8 x 4 x 4 cm -muscles also grit.

5.Cut injury in the middle of back measuring abo