Judgment

SUBBA RAO, J. : These two appeals raise rather an important question on the interpretation of the provisions of S. 207A of the Criminal Procedure Code (hereinafter referred to as the Code).

2. The facts that have given rise to these appeals may be briefly stated. The appeals arise out of an incident that took place on November 29, 1957, when one Sadashiv was murdered in the courtyard of his house in village Nimgaon. The case of the prosecution was that the four appellants, armed with sticks, went to the house of the deceased, dragged him out of the house and beat him with sticks in the courtyard; and that as a result of the beating he died on the next day at about 5 p.m. at Bhandara Hospital. After investigation, the police submitted their report to the Magistrate under S. 173 of the Code along with the relevant documents. After forwarding the report, the officer in charge of the police station furnished the appellants with a copy of the report forwarded under sub-s. (1) of S, 173, the First Information Report recorded under S. 154 and all other documents or relevant extracts thereof on which the prosecution proposed to rely, including the statements recorded under sub-s. (3