Gopal Sri Ram JCA:

[1] There are two appeals before us. One of them is Criminal Appeal No A-05-52-99. We will refer to the appellant in that appeal as the first accused. The other is Criminal Appeal No A-05-56-99 in which we will refer to the appellant as the second accused. Both appeals were taken together In the court below the first and second accused together with one Kumaresan (now at liberty) were jointly tried on four charges of murder Surprisingly, Kumaresan (the third acussed) was acquitted at the close of the prosecution's case despite the rather compelling evidence that was led against him. Unfortunately the order acquitting him was not appealed against. The first and second accused were, however, called upon to enter their defence and were convicted on all four charges. Each appealed against his conviction and sentence. At the close of argument on these appeals, we dismissed them. In giving reasons for our decision we are spared from regurgitating the facts in detail or narrating the evidence at length as the learned judge (whose judgment has been reported in [1999] 3 MLRH 875, [2000] 1 MLJ 274) has handled them admirably.

[2] The case presented by the prosecution at the trial is as follows. Kedai Emas Chitra is a jewellery shop in Ipoh. It is owned by PW26 (Nalliah Periasamy). He and his wife (Virama) ran the business. They had a maid, Juriah who also helped out. They had a 15 year old son, Sathian. There was a watchman at the shop. He was Balakrishnan. At about 1am on 13 March 1998, PW33 (Harminderjit Singh) was near the jewellery shop. His attention was attracted by the sound of the burglar alarm from the jewellery shop. He saw a car parked outside the shop. It was a Proton Iswara No PCV 7749. He saw a person sitting in the driver's seat. A short while later he saw two other persons come out from the shop. They got into the car and drove away. PW33 followed them until he lost them along Jalan Gopeng. He then went off to have his supper before going to the police station where he reported what he had seen. A police team then proceeded to the shop. They found the watchman missing. The shop had been burgled. Much of the jewellery had been taken. A short while later, acting on information provided by a neighbour, the police proceeded to PW26's home. There they found the bodies of Virama, Sathian and Juriah. All three had been violently killed. Sathian and Juriah were found to be tied up with red and yellow fibred rope. The police recovered two blood stained blades (exhs P12A and P24A) from a pair of scissors, one of which had its end broken.

[3] The evidence of circumstances led by the prosecution to implicate the accused in the murders of Virama, Sathian, Juriah and Balakrishnan is as follows. On the morning of 12 March, Virama and Juriah came to the shop. PW26 was not present as he away in India attending to a family matter However, before his departure, he handed all the keys to the shop and the safe to Virama. At about 6.30pm on 12 March, PW20 saw Virama and Juriah leave the shop in a taxi. Balakrishnan locked up the shop and remained inside. The keys to the shop and safe were with Virama. When the police arrived at the shop, they found no evidence of a forced entry. They found that all the doors had been opened with their respective keys. They found two of the keys on the premises of the shop. These were among the keys that were in Virama's possession after she had locked up the shop the previous evening. While conducting their investigations at the house, the police found the bunch of keys for the shop and safe to be missing.

[4] At about midday on 13 March 1998, acting on the information in their possession, the police arrested the second and third accused at No 14A, Lahat Lane, Ipoh. They also recovered the Proton Iswara that PW33 had seen outside the jewellery shop. The car was found at an underground car park of a flat opposite Wisma Chin Hoo, Jalan Hussein, Ipoh. Later, the police arrested the first