ORDER

This Criminal Original Petition has been filed by the Accused No.1 to eschew the evidence of PW4 adduced during his examination-in-chief on 28.11.2019 in S.C.No.84 of 2019 on the file of the II Additional District and Sessions Judge, Thiruvallur, at Poonamallee.

2. The case of the prosecution is that one Nalini W/o.Rajesh suspecting foul play in the death of her husband Rajesh who died on 15.07.2018 lodged a complaint on 20.07.2018 and based on the said complaint, the respondent has registered a case in Cr.No.719 of 2018 on 20.07.2018 under Section 174 of Cr.PC., During investigation, CCTV footages were seized from the camera which was installed near the scene of occurrence. The said CCTV footages show that on 15.07.2018 at about 06:30 p.m., the deceased Rajesh was consuming liquor along with one Sivakumar (PW4) and one Sundarraj (PW5) at Alapakkam Main Road near Mahalakshmi Enterprises Firewood Depot; that the petitioner herein joined with them and consumed liquor and all of them left the said place of occurrence; that the petitioner called the deceased to come back to the said place again to have liquor; that the petitioner came to the place of occurrence at about 21:10 hours, prior to arrival of the deceased, at about 21:15 hours, the petitioner has prepared a mixture of cyanide in liquor in one glass and liquor alone was poured in another glass, and that when the deceased thereafter came there, the petitioner gave the cyanide mixed liquor glass to him which was consumed by the deceased inside the car. Since the deceased has not returned to the house, the deceased's wife Nalini (defacto complainant), went to the scene of occurrence and found that the deceased fallen down in front of the car in an unconscious state and she took him to the hospital and there, the doctor declared him as dead.

3. Based on the aforesaid CCTV footages, the respondent has arrested the petitioner on 22.07.2018 and obtained confession and also recovered material objects. The petitioner gave a confession before the police that there was an affair for him with one Padmavathi (A2) and that the deceased also having affair with her and hence, the petitioner and A2 conspired to murder the deceased and in pursuance of the said conspiracy, the petitioner has administered cyanide poison by mixing in liquor to the deceased and based on the said confession, the Accused No.2 was also arrested and after completing the investigation, a charge sheet was filed against the accused persons under Sections 302 r/w. 120-B and 114 of IPC.

4. During trial, on the side of the prosecution, P.Ws.1 to 5 were examined. The deceased's wife viz., Tmt.Nalini was examined as PW1 and through her, two CDs containing CCTV footages were marked as M.Os.1 and 2. One Sivakumar was examined as PW4 on 28.11.2019, during his chief-examination, the CDs (M.Os.1 and 2) were played before the court and the learned Public Prosecutor has asked questions by showing the said CCTV footages. Aggrieved by the same, the Accused No.1 has filed the present petition to eschew the chief-examination of PW4.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that on 28.11.2019, one Sivakumar was examined as PW4 on the side of prosecution. After his initial chief-examination, CCTV footages were sought to be played through a laptop after obtaining permission from both side counsel. The defence merely consented to the CCTV footages being played in the laptop of the learned Public Prosecutor. However, to the shock and surprise of the defence, the Learned Public Prosecutor in the trial court showed the CCTV footages to PW4 and put leading questions to him suggesting the answer which the learned Public Prosecutor expected to receive from the said witness and the same was objected to by the defence as the same was contrary to the Evidence Act. However, the objections were overruled by the trial court and the learned Public Prosecutor has asked as many as 32 leading questions to the PW4 and the answers to th