[CROWN CASE RESERVED.]

1920 Present: Bertram C.J., De Sampayo J. and Schneider A.J.

THE KING v. THAMBIPILLAI.

P. C. Jaffna, 9,101.

No. 3, First Northern Circuit, 1920.

Murder by some of several persons-Accused acquitted as jury could not tell which of them committed the murder-Conviction for causing evidence to disappear-Penal Code, ss. 198 and 296.

The accused, who were all found carrying off a dead body, were charged with murder and under section 198 of the Penal Code, with having caused evidence of the commission of the offence to disappear. The jury was of opinion that one or more persons among the accused committed the murder, but they could not say which of them did it. The jury acquitted the accused on the charge of murder, and convicted them on the second count.

Held (De Sampayo dissentiente), that the conviction on the second count was not illegal.

BERTRAM C.J.-The evidence being the same in both cases, I see nothing unreasonable in the actual crime and the subsidiary offence being charged in the alternative, so that if the jury are not satisfied as to the former, they may at least convict the offender of the latter.

THIS