JUDGMENT

Rajendra Babu, J.-22 persons were charged by the Court of Session, Solapur on the allegation that they formed an unlawful assembly with the common object of murdering Vithal and causing injury to Bhimrao, the brother of Vithal, and to cause damage to the wada at Dambaldar. After trial most of them stood convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 and Section 440 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and accused Nos. 14, 18 and 19 were also charged and convicted under Section 323 read with Section 34 IPC for having caused simple hurt to Bhimrao. On appeal, the High Court acquitted some more accused but confirmed the conviction and sentence in regard to others. Accused Nos. 1 to 3 and 14 to 19 are in appeal before us. We are not concerned with other accused.

2. This Court granted leave by an order made on 18.7.1994 confining the same only to the question of the nature of offences disclosed. When the learned Senior Advocate Shri A.T.M. Rangaramanujam pitched his arguments a little too high to contend that the accused are entitled to plain acquittal, we made it clear to him that when the trial court and the High Court on the basis of evidence have co