Contradiction in witness, Madras High Court grants relief to 5 murder convicts

CHENNAI: We cannot separate the chaff from the grains, said the Madras High Court and set aside the life sentence imposed on the five accused as it is highly unsafe to single out who are the real murderers from the accused.

Since the prosecution witness statement had contradictions  as he said three unknown persons attacked the deceased, and later it was changed into five persons  the falsity cannot be removed from prosecution witness evidence to believe a portion of his evidence to convict the accused, wrote a division bench of Justices MS Ramesh and Sunder Mohan while allowing the appeal of the accused.

The Court also found that the conduct of the prosecution witness appeared strange, which also made his presence highly doubtful, wrote the bench.

All these infirmities make it highly unsafe to convict the appellants based on the available evidence, and it is impossible to pick and choose as to which of the three accused out of the five accused were involved, wrote the bench and acquitted all the accused from murder charge and set aside the life sentence.

The prosecution’s case is that all five accused  Manikandan, Anandraj, Naveenkumar, Sasimohan, and Mohanbabu  are habitual robbery offenders. On August 22, 2018, the accused threatened a biker with knife and snatched the two-wheeler, said the prosecution. They planned to execute a murder in Gandhimanagar later. On the way, they consumed alcohol, and since they were short of money, they tried to rob the prosecution witness who was at the spot with the deceased (Babu).

The prosecution witness resisted giving money, prompting the five to attack Babu with a bill hook. Severe injuries from the attack made Babu collapse. After they fled the spot, the prosecution witness took Babu to a hospital nearby, where he died. Based on the complaint and evidence of the prosecution witness, the police arrested all the accused under sections 394, 398, 302 and 506 (ii) of the IPC. After the investigation, police filed a final report before the additional district court, Coimbatore. Perusing the final report, the trial court convicted the accused and imposed life imprisonment. All the accused moved the appeal challenging the conviction.