JUDGMENT

M.K. Mukherjee, J.-The appellant along with four others, including his father, brother and nephew, was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar for rioting, committing murders and attempting to commit murders. The learned Judge convicted the appellant and his brother Sukhwinder Singh under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC (on two counts) and sentenced each of them to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/- in default, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year, while acquitting the other three. In appeal, preferred by the two convicts, the High Court affirmed the conviction and sentence of the appellant but acquitted Sukhwinder Singh. Hence this appeal by the appellant after obtaining special leave.

2. The prosecution case in brief is that on October 27, 1979 at or about 9 A.M. the acquitted accused Sukhwinder Singh was preparing a path to his behak (farm house) by dismantling the water course of Sukhdev Singh (one of the two deceased) and his brothers running through their lands while Gurmej Singh (since acquitted), father of the appellant and Sukhwinder Singh, was standing nearby. This was objected to by Sukhdev Singh, his broth