The Madras High Court has upheld the life sentence awarded by a lower court to four accused in the alleged caste-related murders of two persons in Tiruvallur district in 2003 while acquitting 23 others.
A Division Bench comprising Justices S Nagamuthu and V Bharathidasan on Wednesday confirmed the order of the Tiruvallur District Court Additional Sessions Judge on the appeals of four of the convicts while allowing the petition of 23 others convicted by the trial court.
One other accused had died during the trial.
"In our considered view from and out of the eyewitnesses' account, coupled with the medical evidence, the prosecution has clearly established that the four accused had attacked the deceased which resulted in death and therefore they are liable for punishment for the offences including murder under (IPC) Section 302," the bench said.
It acquitted the remaining 23 of all the charges including murder and observed that though the prosecution has projected that "as many as 28 persons came in the mob, one cannot expect them to notice the presence and participation of all the 28 accused and speak about the act including the weapons held."
"A witness may be in a position to notice only the participation of a few accused," it said.
The matter relates to the murder of two persons by 28 persons belonging to the Scheduled Caste in Tiruvur Village in Tiruvallur District.
According to the prosecution, on February 1, 2003, tension prevailed in Tiruvur village, after a statue of social reformer BR Ambedkar was allegedly found desecrated, triggering protests.
Subsequently, a group of people from the village, armed with deadly weapons like sickles, attacked one Sukumar belonging to another community and killed him on the spot.
Another Mahesh was also murdered by the mob the same day.
On December 21, 2015, the Tiruvallur District Court had sentenced all the 27 accused for several offences, including murder, to life imprisonment following which they had approached the High Court.
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