In Brief
Somasundaram and two others were convicted for the 2001 abduction and murder of former MLA M.K. Balan. The conviction rested heavily on accomplice witnesses PW-10 and PW-11, who were present during preparations and the removal of the body but were never made approvers. The High Court upheld their convictions under Sections 302, 364, 365, 387, 347 read with Section 109 IPC, despite acquitting them under Section 120-B (conspiracy). In a split decision, the majority held that accomplice evidence alone, without independent corroboration in material particulars linking each accused to the actual crime, cannot sustain conviction, especially where the conspiracy charge failed. The dissent argued the circumstantial evidence and presumptions regarding abductors sufficiently corroborated the accomplice testimony.
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