Raja vs State By The Inspector Of Police

2. The case of the prosecution as set out in paragraphs 2.1 to 2.3 of the judgment under appeal is as under:-

P.Ws. 3 and 4 along with the child were sleeping in the room situated on the southern portion of the house. P.W.5 was sleeping on the pial situated on the veranda in front of the said house. Just opposite to the said house, on the western side, the tractor shed belonging to them is situated. The deceased Sengoda Goundar and his wife (P.W.2) were sleeping in the said tractor shed.

2.3 Around 09.30 p.m., they went to the respective place to sleep. When they were fast asleep, around 01.00 a.m. on 28.05.1999, these appellants (accused 1 to 6) came to the house of the deceased in order to commit dacoity. They first went into the tractor shed and started mounting attack with deadly weapons on the deceased. The deceased cried for help which awakened P.W.2. These accused indiscriminately attacked P.W.2 also. She raised alarm and cried for Criminal Appeal No. 740 of 2018 etc. Raja etc. vs. State by the Inspector of Police 3 help. On hearing the cry of the deceased and P.W.2, P.W.1 who was sleeping in the room situated on the western portion of the house, opened the main door from inside and came out. On seeing him, some of the accused attacked him with deadly weapons like knife and wooden log. Since the attack was so violent, unable to bear the same and in order to avoid further blows being made, P.W.1 crying for help, tried to rush inside the house. By the time, on hearing the alarm raised, P.W.3 came out of the house. Some of the accused, attacked him with weapons. He sustained bleeding injuries. With a view to save himself from further attack, he rushed into the house and went into the room where his wife was sleeping. The assailants did not stop. They gave a chase, entered into the said room and indiscriminately attacked P.W.3 and his wife (P.W.4) with weapons. Both sustained a number of bleeding injuries. P.W.5 who was sleeping at the Pial, awakened by the cry, rushed out. He was also attacked. Raising alarm, he rushed towards the house of one Thaluka Goundar. These assailants, barged into the house, looted the properties. Number of jewels worn by the witnesses were snatched away by the accused. They broke open the steel bureau in the house and committed theft of the jewels. All happened with a short time. Even before the villagers could gather at the place of occurrence, the accused fled away from the scene of occurrence with decamped valuable jewels and other articles. P.Ws. 1 to 5 and the deceased were struggling for life due to the bleeding injuries. The villagers immediately rushed all of them to the Government hospital at Uthangarai.”

3. All the victims were taken to the hospital, where Sengoda Goundar was declared dead. The following injuries were found on the person of the deceased.

5. At about 6.00 a.m. on 28.05.2009, complaint (Exhibit-P1) was made by PW1-Sundararajan, pursuant to which FIR No.238/1999 was registered with Singarapettai Police Station, as under:-

6. The investigation was commenced by PW17-M.Chinnathambi, Deputy Superintendent of Police. Accused No.1-Raja, Accused No.2- Govindraj, Accused No.3-Palani, Accused No.4-Vandikaran @ Murugan, Accused No.5-Elumalai and Accused No.7- Arumugam were arrested on 21.06.1999 while Accused No.6-Chinnapaiyan surrendered himself before the Magistrate on 22.06.1999, who remanded him to judicial custody on the same day. On 27.06.1999 requisition was made by the Investigating Officer for conducting Test Identification Parade (TIP for short) insofar as all the arrested accused were concerned. On 28.6.1999 an application was made by the Investigating Officer seeking permission to take Accused No.6 – Chinnapaiyan in police custody. The permission was granted by the concerned Magistrate on 29.06.1999 to hold the TIP on 01.07.1999. The police custody of Accused No.6 was also given for 3 days from 01.07.1999.

7. During the course of investigation, following recoveries were made from the concerned accused.

ii) MO 12 gold chain, MOs 21, 23 & 24 gold articles, MOs 46 and 47 clothes having blood stains were recovered from Accused No.2

v) MOs 6 and 16 being gold articles were recovered from Accused No. 5.

8. After completion of investigation, the aforementioned seven accused persons were charged of having committed various offences including those punishable under Sections 109, 120B, 394, 395, 396, 449 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’, for short). The prosecution, in support of its case, principally relied upon the testimonies of PWs 1 to 5 who identified Accused Nos. 1 to 6 to be the assailants. All the witnesses, however, stated that Accused No. 7 was not present as a member of the assembly. In their cross examination, it was suggested to all the witnesses that the accused were shown to the witnesses while they were in custody and that their photographs were also published in newspapers before the TIP was undertaken. The responses of these witnesses were as under:-

9. PW11-Boopalan, Sub-Judge in whose presence the TIP was conducted, stated that the Accused Nos.1 to 6 were made to stand for identification along with 19 other inmates from the Central Prison who were used as dummies and that PWs.1 to 5 identified Accused Nos.1 to 6. PW8- Thangaraj, Village Administrative Officer, in whose presence, the recoveries were said to have been effected, turned hostile. The prosecution did not examine the other Panch, Kasim. PW17, the Investigating Officer, in his cross examination by the Accused 1 to 5 and 7 stated :-

10. The case of the prosecution was accepted by the Additional Sessions Judge, Krishnagiri, who by the judgment dated 24.07.2012 found Accused Nos.1 to 6 guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 394, 396, 449 IPC. Accused Nos. 1 to 3 were also convicted under Section 395 read with Section 397 IPC while Accused Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6 were convicted under Criminal Appeal No. 740 of 2018 etc. Raja etc. vs. State by the Inspector of Police 11 Section 395 IPC and all were awarded the sentence of life imprisonment along with other sentences, including payment of fine and default sentences.

22. The facts on record thus indicate with clarity that:

(c) Out of five injured witnesses, two had completely denied that either the accused or their photographs were shown to the witnesses, while other three did accept the suggestion in that behalf; and

(d) All the witnesses were injured in the transaction with number of injuries. It can, therefore, safely be stated that every one of them had adequate and proper opportunity to observe the features of each of the accused.

24. Since we have accepted and relied upon the eye-witness account, the subsidiary issues like recoveries and whether they were proved in a manner known to law, need no further elaboration.

25. Consequently, we find that the Appellants were rightly found guilty of the offences with which they were charged. Affirming their conviction and sentence, we dismiss these appeals.

December 10, 2019.