Nagarathinam & Ors vs State, Rep. By Inspector Of Police

Maiyoor is a small village situate in the district of Chenglepet. Appellant No.1 had a brick-kiln therein, which was being run in a land belonging to a village temple known as one Gangaiamman temple. The villagers were opposed to it. They complained thereabout to one Rajendran, who was president of the Panchayat Board. He, in turn, lodged a complaint with the Block Development Officer who imposed a fine of Rs.25,000/- on the said appellant. The amount of fine was not paid. The President, Panchayat Board filed a suit therefor, which was decreed. Furthermore, allegedly a sum of Rs.12,000/- collected by the villagers for temple festival and entrusted to the 1st appellant had not been accounted for by him. Rajendran convened a meeting of the Gram Panchayat for taking further action against the 1st appellant. The appellant Nos. 2 and 3 are sons of the 1st appellant.

They, allegedly, having felt insulted and aggrieved over the convening of the meeting, formed themselves into an unlawful assembly at about 2.00 p.m. on 22.7.1990 and questioned the authority of the said Rajendran to convene it. He used some filthy language whereupon Shanmugam (the 1st deceased), a nephew of the said Rajendran, asked him not to do so and express his grievance, if any, in the meeting itself which was to be held at 5.00 p.m on that day. On that, the first appellant allegedly caught hold of his hands from the back side and asked the others to finish him once for all whereupon the appellant No.2, Sankar, brought a small knife from the tea stall and stabbed him (1st deceased) in his stomach. Krishnan, (the 2nd deceased), was coming from his agricultural field. He, on witnessing the said incident, cried. He tried to lift the 1st deceased whereupon the appellant No.1 with a Thadi (stick) assaulted him on his head. The third appellant is said to have assaulted Krishnan with another stick on his shoulder. He also fell down. P.W.1- Gajendran, P.W.2- Elumalai, P.W.3-Paramasivam and P.W.10-Chandran, were sitting near a tea stall. They went to the place of occurrence and made an attempt to lift the two deceased persons. The appellant then, allegedly, threatened them also. One Mohan, who allegedly had come with the appellants is said to have assaulted P.W.1 with a stick. The appellant No.3 is said to have stabbed P.W.3 on his back and when P.W.2 came near him, caused injury on his right hand fingers. Accused No.4, who is not an appellant before us, is said to have caused a cut injury on the head of P.W.10. The appellants allegedly fled from the scene after the prosecution witnesses started assaulting them with stones and sticks.

Indisputably, all the appellants were also injured. They went to hospital and in view of the nature of injuries on their persons were admitted as indoor patients. The hospital registers indicate that they were admitted in the hospital at about 4.00 p.m. In the Accident Register the nature of injuries on their persons were said to have been caused by knife and bottle. The injuries on the person of the appellants herein were found by the attending doctors as under:

The prosecution witnesses, together with the deceaseds, also came to the hospital. The said Rajendran also came to the hospital at 7.00 p.m. A detailed First Information Report was lodged by P.W.1 at about 8.00 p.m. He gave the history about the dispute between the parties as noticed hereinbefore in the First Information Report. He stated about the incident in great details.

The appellants herein, together with three others, were prosecuted for alleged commission of an offence under Sections 147, 148, 324, 302 and 307 read with 149 of the Indian Penal Code (`the Code, for short). The appellants, while pleading not guilty, also raised a plea of self-defence.

The Trial Court found all the six accused before it to be guilty of commission of all the offences with which they were charged. The appellants Nos.1 and 2 were found guilty under Section 302/34 of the Code for causing the death of the 1st deceased and were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life. The appellants Nos.1 and 3 were also convicted under Section 302/34 of the Code for causing the death of the 2nd deceased and were awarded the same sentence. The accused No.1, accused No.3, accused No.5 and accused No.6 were convicted under Section 147 of the Code, whereas accused No.2 and accused No.3 were convicted both under Sections 147 and 148 of the Code. Accused Nos. 3 to 6 were also convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 of the Code for causing the death of the 1st deceased and were awarded life imprisonment, whereas accused Nos.2, 4, 5 and 6 were held to have caused the death of 2nd deceased and were awarded the sentence of life imprisonment. All the accused were furthermore convicted under Section 324 of the Code and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year.

P.W.3 accepted that on the date of occurrence the police did not come. He did not say as to how the appellants received injuries on their persons. P.W.9, Saroja, is the wife of P.W.3. According to her, the quarrel continued for a long time. She stated that for obtaining the presence of the appellants in the Panchayat meeting, announcements were made by beating of drums. She accepted that when the appellants came they had not been carrying any weapon. She accepted that the appellant No.2 got the knife only after the quarrel started. She could not say as to whether her husband was involved in the quarrel and according to her, she only took her husband to the hospital. Admittedly, as regard the incident or the stab injuries received by her husband, she did not inform any other person till the police came to the village. She furthermore accepted that the accused were also injured and she also took part in throwing stones at them. She alleged that she also received injuries, although no such statement was made before the Investigating Officer. She admitted that Rajendran, President of the Panchayat Board came to the hospital at about 7.00 p.m., after the darkness had set in. She found the respective wives of the appellants present in the hospital.

The Investigating Officer did not explain as to why the appellants were not put under arrest on the date of occurrence itself, despite the fact that they were admitted in the hospital. The cause for delay in arresting the accused has not been explained at all.

Keeping in view the totality of the circumstances, the possibility that the appellants have exercised their right of private defence cannot be totally ruled out. We are satisfied that the prosecution had made all attempts to suppress a part of the occurrence. The genesis of the occurrence has, thus, not been proved. The totality of the circumstances brought on record do not, thus, point out to the guilt of the appellants. They are, therefore, entitled to be acquitted.

The appeal for the foregoing reasons is allowed. The judgment of conviction and sentence passed against the appellants are set aside. They are directed to be set at liberty, unless wanted in connection with any other case.