IMPORTANT POINT
There is no undue delay in lodging FIR. The witnesses, though partisan, are natural as they have also received injuries in the incident. The contradictions in their statements are minor. The appellants are rightly convicted under Section 302/149 IPC and under various other sections by trial Court duly upheld by High Court.

Headnote:Indian Penal Code, 1860-Sections 302/149-Appellants convicted under, confirmed in appeal by High Court-Appeal against to Supreme Court-Motive to commit crime enemity in two factions of different political parties-Appellants availing the opportunity on 16.4.90 launched attack by deadly weapons, killed five and injured four others who are eye witnesses to the incident-Delay in lodging the report duly explained-(See para 10)-Witnesses though partisan witnesses are natural witnesses who also received injuries in the incident (see para 11)-Contradictions in statements of witnesses found minor (See para 12)-Result-Appeals dismissed.
Held : Considering all the submissions made by the learned counsel appearing for the appellants and the facts and circumstances of the case as well as hardly find any good reason to take any different view of the matter from one taken by the trial Court and upheld by the High Court in appeal. In the result the appeals fail and they are accordingly dismissed. The appellants shall serve out the sentences as awarded to them by the trial Court and upheld by the High Court. (Para 13)

JUDGMENT

Brijesh Kumar, J.-These appeals have been filed against the judgment and order passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court dated August 13, 1999, dismissing Criminal Appeals No. 1065, 1066 and 1092 of 1994 and upholding the conviction and sentences as awarded to the appellants by the trial Court.

2. In all 17 accused persons had been prosecuted, out of whom one accused A-3 died during the trial and the remaining 16 accused have been convicted under Section 302/149 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life and some of them on two counts as well, and under various other sections with varying terms of imprisonment and fine, details of which are not necessary to be repeated for the purposes of disposal of these appeals. The present appeals before this Court have been filed on behalf of A-1, A-2 and A-4 to A-17. It will be convenient to refer to them as in the trial Court as indicated above.

3. The prosecution case is that in Village Venkanuru, Police Station Avanigadda, District Krishna, Vijayawada, there are two factions and parties on political lines. One group had been under the leadership of D-3 (deceased No. 3). They are all sympathisers of Congress-I party. Whereas the Telugu Desam Party is said to have been led in the village by one Tungala Veera Raghavaiah, who was murdered on 6.12.1989 in village Venkanuru. D1 to D5 in this case, and PWs 1 to 6 and 19 have been prosecuted for the aforesaid crime and the case was pending in the Court of Sessions. Prior to the aforesaid incident, one Gudivaka Venkata Naga Basava Rao was murdered on 19.5.1989. He was related to A6 (accused No. 6) and belonged to their party. A case was registered in connection with murder of Gudivaka Venkata Naga Basava Rao as Crime No. 42/1989 in Avanigadda Police Station against D1 to D3 and D5 along with four others. This case was also committed to the Court of Sessions and pending at the time of incident.

4. A1 is said to have led the Telugu Desam Party in the village after the murder of Tungala Veera Raghavaiah. Due to incidents, as indicated above, the two parties had been inimical to each other. The D1 to D5 and PWs 1 to 6 and 19, who had been arrested in connection with the murder of Tungala Veera Raghavaiah, were originally released on bail with certain conditions on 5.4.1990. Later on, it is the case of prosecution that the conditions of bail were relaxed. Thus the D1 to D5 and PWs 1 to 6 and 19 in this case, returned to the village Vekanuru and started living in the house of D3. It is said that they all preferred to live together for the purposes of their safety and as a matter of daily routine they had been going to the bank of river Krishna in the morning to attend the call of nature etc.

5. The prosecution case further is that on 16.4.1990, all those persons i.e. complainant and party had gone to river Krishna at about 6.30 a.m. and while returning to the village they were attacked by the accused persons from behind the bushes with knives, spears and penaka kathi and bombs were also hurled on them. Apart from the injuries received on account of the bomb thrown by the accused persons, they also received injuries caused by other weapons also. A1 and A2 are said to have hacked D1 with penaka kathi. A5 and A8 assaulted D5 with penaka kathi. A6 is also said to have wielded spear. The victims started running here and there and all the accused persons were wielding their weapons causing injuries to the deceased and other witnesses on different parts of their bodies with different weapons they were possessed of. As a result of the assault as indicated above, 5 persons died D1 to D5. Out of them 3 were beheaded and their heads were also carried away by the accused persons.

6. The witnesses who had run away here and there and had hid themselves again assembled and found four dead bodies lying there as D5 till then was left with some life in him. He was, therefore, sent to the hospital on a cot by PW 14 and another. They all then met PW 12, who is

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