2024:MHC:3395 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS Reserved on 28.08.2024 Pronounced on 19.09.2024 CORAM :

THE HONOURABLE Mr. JUSTICE M.S. RAMESH AND THE HONOURABLE Mr. JUSTICE C.KUMARAPPAN Crl.A.Nos.624 of 2018 & 51 of 2019 Mohammed Imathathullah Alias Mohammed Yasin ... Appellant/A2 in Crl.A.624/2018 Hakeem ... Appellant/A1 in Crl.A.51/2019 Vs.

State represented by Inspector of Police, Maduravoyal Police Station, Chennai.

Crime No.383/2014 ... Respondent/Complainant in both Appeals Common Prayer: Criminal Appeals filed under Section 374(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code to set aside the conviction and sentence imposed in the judgment dated 07.06.2018 against the appellants/accused in S.C.No.10/2016 on the file of the learned III Additional Sessions Judge, Poonamallee, Tiruvallur District and acquit the appellants.

For Appellant in Crl.A.No.624/2018 : Mr.V.Parthiban For Appellant in Crl.A.No.51/2019 : Mr.I.Abdul Basith For Respondent : Mr.A.Gokulakrishnan in both Appeals Additional Public Prosecutor *****

C O M M O N J U D G M E N T

C.KUMARAPPAN, J.

The Criminal Appeal No.51 of 2019 was filed by 1^st accused. Similarly, Criminal Appeal No.624 of 2018 was filed by 2^nd accused. Both the appeals have arisen from the order of conviction passed in SC.No.10 of 2016 dated 07.06.2018 by the learned III Additional Sessions Judge, at Poonamallee, Tiruvallur District for the offence under Section 302 r/w 34, 341 and 323 (3 counts) of IPC.

2. The case of the prosecution is that, the accused and the deceased Vijay are known to each other. It appears that on 16.03.2014 at about 5.00 p.m, the deceased Vijay questioned the accused of their high handed act of consumption of liquor in the middle of the road. Enraged by the hegemony shown by the deceased, the accused developed enmity with the deceased. To avenge their revenge, they proceeded to the deceased Vijay's uncle Jaysankar's [PW2] house on 24.03.2014 at about 10.00 a.m. But, the deceased Vijay fortunately was not in PW2's house. Realising the unquenched anger of the accused against the deceased, the family members decided to lodge a police complaint against them. In furtherance thereof, on the same day [24.03.2014] the deceased Vijay, and his brother Manikandan [PW1], his uncle Jaysankar [PW2] and his paternal uncle Kannan [PW10] along with his friends viz., Salaman [PW3] and Sudhakar [PW4] proceeded to the police station to give a police complaint. At about 13.15.p.m, when all of them were near Sree Lakshmi Nagar, 7^th main road junction, the 1^st and 2^nd accused on seeing Vijay (deceased), waylaid him and indiscriminately stabbed him with knife. While, PW1, PW2 and PW10 intervened to protect the deceased, they also sustained injuries. Hence, a complaint [Ex.P1] was given by PW1 at about 1.45.p.m.

3. On the basis of complaint [Ex.P1], FIR [Ex.P14] was registered by the Investigating Officer Mr.Anandbabu [PW18]. After that, he made arrangements to send the injured persons viz., PW1, PW2 and PW10 to the hospital for treatment. He also proceeded to the scene of occurrence, and prepared the observation mahazar [Ex.P2] and rough sketch [Ex.P15], besides, collecting the sample sand, and blood stained sand. Between 16.45 to 18.45 hours, he conducted inquest over the body of the deceased Vijay and prepared the inquest report [Ex.P16]. Thereafter, he made arrangements for postmortem of the body of the deceased. On the very same day, he recorded the statement of the eye witnesses viz., PW1 to PW5 and PW9.

4. On 25.03.014, based on the intelligence information, he arrested both the accused near Maduravoyal Tollgate. While interrogating, they voluntarily gave confession statement, and the same was recorded in the presence of witnesses Karthik [PW15] and Kumaran. After recording the same, a discovery of fact was effected by recovering blood stained shirt, along with blood stained knife at the instance of 1^st accused. Similarly, blood stained shirt and blade was recovered at the instance of the 2^nd accuse