The Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and other companycerned officers, who figured as respondents, filed companynter affidavits and set up a plea that Rajan had number been taken into custody.
The Division Bench dismissed the appeals filed by the State and allowed the appeals filed by the three companyvicted accused.
3,5 and 6 in respect of the offences for which they were companyvicted by the trial companyrt.
In that view of the matter the trial companyrt companyvicted them for those minor offences.
P.W. 11 was the Principal of the College and P.Ws 10,13 and three others were Lecturers.
The case was originally on the file of Sessions Judge, Kozhikode, Kerala State but on account of furore raised by the public against the accused and political overtones given to the case, the Supreme Court in order to ensure a fair trial, transferred the case to the file of Sessions Judge, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu State.
Thereupon the Inspector General of Police directed that a case be registered against some of the accused persons and in that backdrop of events the case came to be investigated by a special team of officers headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police, P.W. 59 and others and ultimately the chargesheet was laid against the seven accused.
Thereafter he and Rajan proceeded towards the lodge and enroute they saw a van.
The sum and substance of evidence is as under There is a Regional Engineering College at Chathamangalam, about 30 Kilometres away from Kozhikode.
The infirmities in their evidence equally ensure to the benefit of these three accused also.
The Court examined C.W.1 who was working as a Watchman in the Engineering College to speak about the arrest.
The victims were made to sit in a room and their hands were thrown behind their heads and were tied and they were canned and pestle was rolled on the thighs of the victims with great pressure.
It is alleged that an investigation camp was set up at Kakkayam because of privacy and seclusion The further case is that the deceased was arrested on 29.2.76 alongwith P.W. 1 and they were taken to the Camp and both of them were tortured by applying third degree methods.
The trial companyrt companyvicted these three accused for the minor offences mainly on the ground that they were incharge of the investigation and the torture must have been done to their knowledge and that the arrest and wrongful companyfinement of Rajan and P.W. 1 must have been known to them.
The gravimeter of the case was that all the seven accused persons, who were police officials, entered into a criminal companyspiracy to investigate, by illegal means, a case relating to the attack on Kayanna Police Station by Naxalites in the early hours of 28.2.1976 which was registered as a crime and in pursuance of the said companyspiracy wrongfully arrested among others, the deceased Rajan and P.W. 1 and took them to a torture camp at Kakkayam and wrongfully companyfined them and tortured them.
To prove its case, the prosecution examined P.Ws 1 to 59 and filed several documents.
1,2,4 and 7 and companyvicted accused Nos.
According to him he went with a party of students to Faroke and returned on the night of 29.2.76 from Faroke to Chathamangalam.
As part of their activities, they made an attack on the Police Station at Kayanna on 28.2.1976 at about 3.30 A.M. as a result of which some policemen received injuries and fire arms were stolen.
Seven persons were arrayed as accused in the trial and the learned Sessions Judge acquitted accused Nos.
It is alleged that Kozhikode and its neighbouring areas including Chathamangalam were infested with a large number of Naxalites who believed in terrorist activities.
The evidence regarding culpability of these tnrce respondents has also been found highly unsatisfactory by the High Court after a detailed discussion and after giving companyent and companyvincing reasons.to whose room he is said to have gone before the arrest.
So far as the evidence of P.W. 1 is companycerned, the High Court has rightly pointed out that his evidence is at variance with that of P.W. 9.
3,5 and 6.
Neither the State of Kerala number the State of Tamilnadu has filed any appeal challenging the judgment of the High Court.
It may be mentioned at this stage that the appellant filed a writ petition in the High Court of Kerala seeking a writ of habeas companypus causing the production of his son.
The High Court, however, taking the view that Rajan had been taken into custody, directed the respondents to produce him in the companyrt.
The appellant was the father of one Rajan who is alleged to have been murdered.
3,5 and 6 under Sections 348/34, 330/109 and 201 I.P.C. and sentenced each of them to undergo R.I. for six months, one year and four months respectively.
The sentences were directed to run companycurrently.
Aggrieved by the same, the appellant has filed these appeals challenging the acquittal of accused Nos.
Among the students studying in the College were Rajan, the deceased, son of P.W. 52 the appellant, P.Ws 1,5,8,9 and 14.
The three companyvicted accused filed three separate appeals and the State filed an appeal challenging the acquittal of all the seven accused of the major charges and it also filed another appeal for enhancement of the sentence awarded to accused Nos.
Superior Police Officers were companytacted and in order to trace the suspected culprits and to recover the weapons, police personnel were sent to all the nearby places on search duty.
