COMMON JUDGMENT

(Judgment of the Court was made by V.LAKSHMINARAYANAN, J.)

Criminal Appeal No.918 of 2019 has been presented by A1 to A3 and Criminal Appeal No.846 of 2019 has been presented by A4. As both appeals assail the judgment of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Dharmapuri in S.C.No.96 of 2018 dated 12.11.2019, the appeals were clubbed together and heard by us.

2. It is the case of the prosecution that the deceased, Perumal, had misbehaved with one, Kavya. The said Kavya being a relative of the accused, they conspired to do away with Perumal. In pursuance to this conspiracy, on 05.02.2018 at about 12.30 am, they came to the Perumal's house. PW1 is the mother of Perumal. She answered the knocks of the door. The accused, who were armed with wooden logs, demanded to know where Perumal was. She responded that Perumal, as per his practice, was sleeping near the Mariamman Temple in their village at Kodiyur. Immediately, A1 to A4 rushed to the Mariamman Temple and dragged Perumal towards the playground situated near a school. Sakthivel-A1 beat Perumal with the wooden log that he was carrying on his head and Perumal fell down. Thereafter, A1 beat Perumal indiscriminately with the