Privy Council Court February 1944 Judgments

K.R. Easwaramurthi Goundan Vs. Emperor

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1944PC54

Lord Wright: The appellant, a wealthy landowner, merchant and banker with large interests in Tiruppur, where he resided, and other places in the Province of Madras, was charged along with ten other persons under S. 216, Penal Code, with the offence of "harbouring" two persons who were suspected of having committed a murder on or about 8th March 1940. The murdered man was Muthu Goundan, of Othuvillaipudur. The police formed the opinion that the murder was committed by four persons, all of them Valayans, a low tribe among the depressed and criminal classes of Madras, aided and abetted by one R.V.I. Goundan, the father-in-law of the appellant. Two of these four Valayans are the persons whom the accused was said to have "harboured." These men, along with R. V. I. Goundan, being subsequently tried for the murder or abetment, were acquitted. Of the eleven men later charged with "harbouring," ten including the appellant were convicted by the Sub-divisional Magistrate who tried the case, the a...