JUDGMENT

Arijit Pasayat, J.-Political battles are increasingly being fought with bullets and not with ballots. Innocent lives are lost and in some cases of those who have no role to play therein.

2. Two young boys, Manohar and Satish, aged about 10 and 12 years respectively (hereinafter referred to as the deceased by the respective names) lost their lives allegedly on account of one such battle. The two accused-appellants Ruli Ram and his son Ramesh were said to be responsible for taking away their lives. The trial court i.e. the Court of Sessions at Hissar held the accused-appellants guilty under Section 304 Part II of Indian Panel Code, 1860 (in short IPC ). In appeal by the State a Division Bench of Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh held that the accused-appellants were to be convicted under Section 302 IPC. The trial court awarded sentence of 10 years R.I. imprisonment; but the High Court substituted it by imprisonment of life.

3. Filtering out unnecessary details, the prosecution version is as follows:

On 2.8.1988 Datta Ram PW2 lodged first information report alleging that while two young boys (his grandsons) were playing by the side of a pond, they were thrown into