Judgment

S.P. Kurdukar, J.-The village Tilokpur consists of several hamlets, of which Kurthara is one where Abdul Ali son of Maikoo (A-1) was residing but lateron he shifted to village Tilokpur. Mustaffa (A-2) was also residing at village Kurthara but thereafter shifted to village Tilokpur. Vikram (A-3) and Ramanuj (A-4) are the residents of village Kurthara. All these four accused persons happened to be close friends of each other, of whom, Abdul Ali (A-1) was the Pradhan of Tilokpur Gram Panchayat for about fifteen years until he lost the election to the post of Pradhan to Shanker Lal (since deceased). At the time of incident which took place on December 24, 1983, undisputedly Shanker Lal was the Pradhan who belonged to the opposite group. The accused and in particular Abdul Ali (A-1) did not cherish the success of Shanker Lal as the Pradhan of village Tilokpur. The victory of Shanker Lal as the Pradhan was celebrated by his supporters in the village which added an additional insult to the ego of A-1. According to the prosecution, these factors led to the strained and inimical relations between the two groups, one headed by A-1 and the other by Shanker Lal.

2. It is alleged by the