Ismail Khan J:

The appellant was in the first place tried on a charge that he with four other accused being members of an unlawful assembly, the common object of which was to cause hurt to one Ramasamy, one of their members caused grievous hurt to the said Ramasamy with a parang and thereby committed an offence under ss. 149 and 326 of the Penal Code.

Substantive evidence of the primary facts was given by Ramasamy himself supported by close members of his family, viz his younger brother Maniam (PW2), his son Muniandy (PW4) and mother Thanapackiam (PW5). Since, however, Ramasamy himself categorically stated that none of the other four coaccused had said or done anything at all in the events alleged to have taken place, the learned trial Judge at the close of the prosecution case was compelled to hold that these co-accused had no prima facie case to answer. They were accordingly acquitted and discharged. In the result the charge against the appellant as sole remaining accused was amended to one of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Ramasamy with a parang in contravention of s. 326 of the Penal Code. On that charge he was duly convicted and sentenced to three years' impriso