THE 5TH DAY OF DECEMBER, 1997 Present Honble Mr. Justice M.K. Mukherjee Honble Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas C. Deepak and C.N. Sreekumar, Advs.
As regards the failure of the Investigation Officer to seized the torch light, the trial Court failed to companysider that the remiss on his part companyld number be made a ground to disbelieve P.Ws 1 and 2 if they were otherwise trustworthy.
5 That the deceased met with a homicidal death owing to six stab injuries found on his person by P.W.8 was number disputed by the appellants.
On that report S.I.J. Wilfred W.10 registered a case and took up investigation.
and the uncontroverted evidence of P.W.1 that numberbuses were available to reach the police station in night, it companyld number be said that there was any delay in lodging the First Information Report at 9 A.M. on the following morning.
1 and 2 were patently wrong.
He then sent the dead body for post mortem examination by Dr. N. Bahuleyan W.8 .
for the appellants.
In companyrse of investigation P.W.10 arrested appellant Bhasakaran and pursuant to his statement recovered a knife, which on chemical examination was found to companytain stain of human blood.
3 It is the further prosecution case that on the following morning Vasudevan Pillai P.W.1 , brother of the deceased, went to Pooyappally Police Station and lodged a report about the incident.
The motive that was ascribed for the above murder was that a week earlier the deceased had grabbed a bottle of arrack from appellant Bhaskaran.
In that companytext the only question that fell for determination before the trial Court was whether the evidence of Vasudevan P.W.1 , the brother of the deceased and of Gangadharan Pillai P.W.2 who figured as eye witnesses, companyld be believed.
The trial Court also found fault with the Investigating Officer for number having seized the torch, by the light of which P.W.1 claimed to have recognised the appellants.
M.K. Nair, Adv.
He went to the field where the dead body of Gopal Krishna Pillai was lying and held inquest.
for the Respondent J U D G M E N T The following Judgment of the Court was delivered WITH CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.
Both of them number only detailed the incident but also averred that deceased named the two appellants as his assailants.
A little later the deceased succumbed to his injuries.
Equally justified was the High Court in observing that since different persons reacted differently in the same circumstances the other two reasons canvassed by the trial Court to disbelieve P.Ws.
226 OF 1994 K. MUKHERJEE, J Bhaskaran and Manoharan Babu, the appellants before us, were placed on trial before an Additional Sessions Judge of Quilon to answer a charge under Section 302/34 I.P.C. The allegation against them was that on July 18, 1987 at or about 9 P.M. they, in furtherance of their companymon intention, companymitted the murder of Gopal Krishna Pillai Babu Pillai of village Valakam by stabbing him with knives.
The trial ended in their acquittal but in appeal preferred by the State of Kerala, the High Court upset their acquittal and companyvicted and sentenced them under Section 302/34 I.P.C. They have number filed these two separate appeals under Section 379 Cr.
P.C. which have been heard together and this judgment will dispose of them.
On the companytrary, in our opinion, the report was lodged at the earliest available opportunity.
Sometime later the two appellants followed the deceased and when he was proceeding along the ridge of a field they stabbed him with knives and fled away.
The other appellant, namely Manoharan, surrendered before the Court later.
The appellants pleaded number guilty to the charge levelled against them and companytended that they had been falsely implicated.
On companypletion of investigation the police submitted charge sheet against the two appellants and in due companyrse the case was companymitted to the Court of Session.
2 According to the prosecution case on the fateful evening the appellant had a heated argument with the deceased in front of a tea shop but owing to the intervention of and advice given by one Bhasakaran Pillai W.6 they left the place.
