ORDER

There were 11 accused before the sessions court who were charge-sheeted for the murder of one Tribuna Singh on the allegation that those 11 persons formed themselves into an unlawful assembly with the object to murder him. Although the sessions court convicted all the 11 persons under Section 302 read with Section 149 (besides some other lesser offences) a division bench of the High Court of Patna had acquitted six out of the 11 persons. In regard to the present four appellants the High Court convicted them for the offence under section 302 read with section 34 of the IPC although the High Court confirmed the conviction of the offences under section 147 and 148 etc. of the IPC also. These appeals are filed by special leave by those four persons.

2. The four persons were arrayed in the trial court as A1-Rameshwar Singh, A2-Anil Kumar Singh, A3-Devender Singh and A4-Parshuram Singh.

3. According to the prosecution version the motive for the incident was a dispute over a timber tree which stood almost on the boundary of the lands belonging to the family of A3-Devender Singh and that of the deceased. Perhaps many skirmishes would have taken place on account of the said dispute. On 1