IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM PRESENT : THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE V.RAMKUMAR THURSDAY, THE 16TH AUGUST 2007 / 25TH SRAVANA 1929 Crl.Rev.Pet.No. 1382 of 2007(C) ------------------------------- CC.45/2005 of CHIEF JUDL.MAGISTRATE, ERNAKULAM .................... REVN. PETITIONER: PETITIONERS ------------------------------ 1. N.I.LAZER, S/O. SRI. IYPE, NEYYAN HOUSE, WADAKKANCHERY, TRICHUR DISTRICT. 2. THERESA, W/O. LAZER, NEYYAN HOUSE, WADAKKANCHERY, TRICHUR DISTRICT. 3. ANTO N.L., S/O. SRI. LAZER, NEYYAN HOUSE, WADAKKANCHERY, TRICHUR DISTRICT. BY ADV. SRI.K.RAMAKUMAR SRI.T.RAJASEKHARAN NAIR RESPONDENTS: RESPONDENT/ACCUSED -------------------------------- 1. THE DIRECTOR, CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, NEW DELHI. 2. THE INSPECTOR OF POLICE, CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, "A" WING, 3RD FLOOR, RAJAJI BHAVAN, BASANT NAGAR, CHENNAI. 3. RONALD B. FERNANDEZ, S/O. BENSIGAR, THOTTUMUGHAM HOUSE, CHENNIPUZHA DESOM, CHANGANACHERRY, KOTTAYAM DISTRICT. BY ADV. SRI.P.PARAMESWARAN NAIR, CGC SRI.B.RAMAN PILLAI SRI.R.ANIL SRI.ANIL K.MOHAMMED SRI.RAJU RADHAKRISHNAN SRI.S.SREEKUMAR,S.C.,C.B.I. THIS CRIMINAL REVISION PETITION HAVING BEEN FINALLY HEARD ON 23/07/2007, THE COURT ON 16/08/2007 PASSED THE FOLLOWING: V. RAMKUMAR, J. .......................................... Crl.R.P. 1382 of 2007 ............................................... Dated, this the 16th day of August 2007 O R D E R 397 401 . . . In this Revision filed under Sections and Cr P C the , revision petitioners who are the father mother and brother respectively of one Thomas who succumbed to gun shot injury 8 . . 25-4-2000, sustained by him at p m on challenge the order 30-10-2006 , dated passed by the chief Judicial Magistrate Ernakulam rejecting the prayer made by the revision petitioner . 173 (8) . . . herein for further investigation under Sec Cr P C 2. . . , I heard Advocate Sri K Ramkumar the learned counsel . . , appearing for the revision petitioner and Advocate Sri S Sreekumar . . . the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the C B I and perused . the relevant records 3. The learned counsel appearing for the revision petitioners made the following submissions before me in support of the :- revision , , Radhakrishnan the then Superintendent of Police State Rapid ( ), . . . Action Force SRAF Malappuram who was questioned by C B I as . .9 C W is the person is who is suspected by the revision petitioners . as the person behind the brutal murder of Thomas The said ' Radhakrishnan s daughter was in love with one Hakkim and deceased Thomas who was running a Video Shop at Cheruthuruthy . was in possession of Video Cassettes involving their love affair Crl.R.P. 1382 of 2007 -:2:- , Hence Radhakrishnan who could not lay his hands on those . cassettes had a motive to annihilate Thomas The fatal gun shot was sustained by Thomas from his own Video shop at the hands of . , 3 Ronald B Fernandez the rd respondent herein who was none other . . . . than the gunman of the said Radhakrishnan The F S L report goes to show that the revolver in question when fired could produce 150 . tattoo marking up to cms But in the instant case the revolver 120 . had discharged bullet from a distance of only cms Still there . was no tattoo markings noted Soon after the occurrence Radhakrishnan had been to the scene of crime and had taken into custody his service revolver used by his gunman and had removed . 1 the same to his house at Cheruthuruthy It was about ½ hours after the occurrence that the service revolver used for firing the fatal , shot was recovered by the police from the possession of Rajeev the . son of Radhakrishnan from his house The fact that soon after the , occurrence Radhakrishnan hurriedly removed the weapon of offence to his custody shows his anxiety to screen himself from . punishment He had retained the service revolver in his house for 1 . . . . nearly ½ hours The C B I has not conducted any investigation to find out whether there were fingerprints of Radhakrishnan on the . said revolver The court below has not considered the detailed objections filed by the revision petitioners to the final report filed by . . . . . . the C B I The C B I is attempting to shield and protect the said . Radhakrishnan who is a prime suspect in the case The request for further investigation made by the revision petitioners ought to have been granted by the court below in the light of the decisions of the Apex Court in (5) . Zahira Habibulla Sheikh v State of Gujarat -2004 (4) 1458 SCC and (5) . Zahira Habibulla Sheikh v Crl.R.P. 1382 of 2007 -:3:- - State of Gujarat 2006 (3) 374). SCC 4. I am afraid that I cannot agree with the above . submissions What is unravelled by the investigation conducted by . . :- the C B I is the following 2000 During the year the accused in the case namely . ( -154) Reynold B Fernandez was working as headconstable F in the ( ), . State Rapid Action Force SRAF Pandikkad He was attached as the ( 9) security guard to Radhakrishnan CW who was the ( ), . Commandant SRAF Pandikkad The said Reynold was supplied 0.380 . . with a cal rim Ruger Police Service Revolver with butt No 161-12725 12 . and live cartridges in his official capacity Deceased Thomas who was the son of the first revision petitioner herein was running a Video Shop under the name and style Natham Videos . near Chungam at Cheruthuruthy in a room bearing Building No /314 . 25-4-2000 7.30 IX of Vallathol Nagar Panchayat On at about . . . p m Reynold B Fernandez visited Natham Video shop for purchase of audio cassettes from the deceased with whom he had previous . acquaintance Reynold was at that time carrying the service revolver 5 . in question which was loaded rounds Deceased Thomas was . .6 ( ) present in the shop at that time and C W one Ali who was a close associate of the deceased was also present in the Video Shop . at that time The deceased requested Reynold to show him the . service Revolver Reynold unloaded the Revolver by removing five . cartridges and handed over the revolver to deceased Thomas After . inspecting the revolver the deceased returned it to Reynold - Thereafter Reynold re loaded the revolver with the five rounds and ( ) . placed it on the counter table The deceased was at that time ( ). sitting on a chair near the counter table When Reynold placed the Crl.R.P. 1382 of 2007 -:4:- . loaded revolver on the table the deceased tried to take the firearm , Considering the great risk involved Reynold suddenly tried to snatch the revolver in which process the trigger was accidentally pressed by Reynold leading to the discharge of a projectile from the revolver hitting on the face of Thomas causing a lacerated 0.70 . penetrating entry wound cms in diametre circular over the 0.05 left side of his face at a spot cms outer to the angle of the 1.5. 0.8 mouth and leaving an exit lacerated wound x cms on the . back side of the neck with irregular and averted margins Reynold - realising that his rash act of attempting to re possess the firearm , had cost the precious life of his friend came out of the Video Shop walked towards the road outside and made an attempt to commit suicide by firing two shots on his abdomen with the same service . revolver Thomas who had sustained the fatal gunshot injury 11 . . . succumbed to the injuries at about p m on the same day ( 9) Radhakrishnan CW who was residing in his own house called , , Prasanth at Cheruthuruthy on being informed of the occurrence . suddenly rushed to the scene Finding that his gunman was lying , wounded on the road with his service revolver lying nearby Radhakrishnan took the firearm into custody by way of safety and . took it to his residence On his own direction the service revolver 9.30 . . was seized by the local police from his house at p m in the . same night It was his son Rajeev who had handed over the service revolver to the investigating police officer who seized the weapon as . per a seizure mahazar The hand wash of the deceased and Reynold showed the presence of Nitrate indicating that the weapon . , was handed by both of them In the meanwhile revision petitioners 1 2 . .( ) . and had filed a writ petition before this Court as W P C No Crl.R.P. 1382 of 2007 -:5:- 23041 2003 of for a direction to entrust the investigation to the . . . C B I and the said request was allowed by this Court as per 1-8-2003. . . . Annexure A judgment dated The C B I has conducted a very meticulous investigation to rule out the possibility of homicide ( 9) and Radhakrishnan CW being the person behind the death of . 171 . Thomas Deceased Thomas had a height of cms as revealed by . the postmortem certificate The courter or the table on which the 1.5 , loaded weapon was kept by Reynold has a length of metres 50 . 90 . width of cms and height of cms The seat of the chair on 44 which deceased Thomas was sitting was having a height of . . , cms from the floor Thus the conclusion that the gun shot must have struck Thomas while he was in a sitting posture and at a time when the loaded weapon was on the table and in the course of a . . . . struggle for the weapon is quite probable The C B I has also investigated into the motive alleged by the revision petitioners and nothing has been revealed to show that the deceased was having ' any electronic record of the love affair of Radhakrishnan s daughter or Radhakrishnan was harbouring any enmity or hostility towards - the deceased so as to infer that the death of deceased was a pre . 120 . planned and engineered one cms which is the distance between the firearm and the body of deceased Thomas is only two arms length and if the firing of the revolver took place in the manner . . . concluded by the C B I the incident could very well take place in . 150 . that manner cms which is the maximum distance within , which the revolver in question could produce tattooing marks has . been measured under simulated conditions in the laboratory Absence of tattooing marks on the face of the deceased does not . render the investigation suspect Tattooing or peppering is the Crl.R.P. 1382 of 2007 -:6:- manifestation of a gun shot injury due to the unburnt or semi burnt nitrate and in the manner in which the occurrence is said to have , taken place the absence of tattooing does not falsify the . . . occurrence in the manner concluded by the C B I The conclusion reached by the investigating agency on the basis of the statements . .6 ( . . ) of C W K P Ali who was in the Video Shop and the neighbouring ( . .1), ( . .2), shop keepers namely Shaheer C W Kalandan C W ( . .3) ( . .4) Venugopal C W and Nazar C W all convergingly confirm prima facie the theory that death of Thomas was a sheer accident on account of the rash and negligent act of Reynold in instinctively attempting to snatch the loaded weapon for fear of it being mishandled by the deceased who was not familiar with such firearms 5. It is really unfortunate that Thomas met with his death in a . totally unexpected moment and he deserves all sympathy But that is no reason to entertain an unfounded suspicion against . Radhakrishnan The conclusion reached by the courts below that no . 173 (8) case has been made out for further investigation under Sec . . . . Cr P C cannot be faulted and is accordingly confirmed , . In the result this Revision is dismissed . , V RAMKUMAR JUDGE . ani