JUDGMENT

M.S.RAMESH, J.

As per the charge sheet filed by the prosecution, on 02.11.2013 at about 05.00 P.M., both the accused, along with two other children in conflict with law, had conspired and with an intention of killing one Lakshmanan, in view of the previous enmity with him, the first accused had assaulted Lakshmanan on the back neck and in order to conceal the evidence, had tied the body in a TVS 50 Moped and dumped it in a well and accordingly, all the accused had committed the offences under Sections 120-B, 302 r/w. 34 and 201 IPC.

2. In order to substantiate their case, the prosecution had examined

14 witnesses, P.W.1 to P.W.14 and marked 19 exhibits, Ex.P1 to Ex.P19, apart from 13 material objects, M.O.1 to M.O.13.

3.1. P.W.1, namely Nallammal, who is the wife of the deceased, had testified that she and her husband were residing in a hut inside M/s.Sterling Company and were eking their livelihood by chopping and selling wood from the Company lands and that on the day of Diwali, her husband had gone to fetch water in a water can and also to borrow some money from P.W.3, namely Muthuramalingam, for the festival expenses and thereafter did not return back. She further speaks about the information she had received that her husband's body was found one month later on 02.12.2013 inside a well and with the help of the TVS 50 Moped (M.O.1), his cellphone (M.O.2), his slippers (M.O.3) and 30 litres water can (M.O.4), she had identified the decomposed body. Though according to P.W.1, her husband went missing on 02.11.2013, she had given a complaint (Ex.P.1) only on 05.11.2013 at 11.30 A.M. with the help of her relative P.W.5, namely Karunanidhi, which was registered in F.I.R.No.158 of 2013 dated 05.11.2013 under the caption “Man Missing”.

3.2. P.W.3 is a Parotta Master, who confirms that the deceased had come to see him for borrowing money, but he could not meet him.

3.3. P.W.5, who is the nephew of P.W.1, has confirmed that he had written the complaint on behalf of P.W.1, when the deceased went missing. He also states that the deceased was missing from 02.11.2013 onwards and the information he received on 02.12.2013 from an unknown person, through a public phone about the body of the deceased lying in the well.

3.4. P.W.2, namely Veerasamy, is the Manager of the Sterlite Company, who confirms that the deceased and his wife were staying in a hut, inside the Company campus.

3.5. P.W.4, namely Ramasamy, and P.W.6, namely Narayanasamy, are the mahazar witnesses, before whom the observation mahazar (Exs.P.2 and P.4) and rough sketch were prepared and through a seizure mahazar (Ex.P.5), a TVS 50 Moped, a cellphone, a pair of slippers and a water can were seized.

3.6. Since the body of the deceased was highly decomposed, the skull of the body was taken to the forensic lab by P.W.7, who is a Grade-

II Police Constable, along with the photographs of the deceased.

3.7. The key witness relied upon by the prosecution is P.W.8, namely Saminathan, who is an Ex-Village Panchayat President, before whom a claim was made that all the accused had given their extra judicial confession statements, confessing that they had conspired and murdered the deceased on 02.11.2013 and concealed the body in a well. According to him, on 05.12.2013, the statements of all the four accused were recorded and under a special report (Ex.P6), he had handed over the accused to the Police. He further states about the voluntary confession made by the accused before the Police and based on the confession that they would show the place of occurrence, he had accompanied the Police and the accused to the place. He also speaks about the Investigation Officer preparing the observation mahazar (Ex.P.7), seizure of the blood stained soil (M.O.7), a chair (M.O.8) and a bill hook (M.O.9). The admitted portion of the confession statement of the first accused was marked through him as Ex.P.8 and the confession statement of the second accused as Ex.P.9.

3.8. P.W.9, namely Natarajan, is the