Judgment

SHELAT, J.-One Mange Ram and the four appellants herein were charged under Section 302 read with Section 149 and Section 148 of the Penal Code for causing the death of one Des Raj at about 10 a. m. on July 4, 1960. They were tried and convicted by the Sessions Judge, Rohtak and each of them was sentenced to imprisonment for life. In appeal against the said conviction and sentence, the High Court acquitted the said Mange Ram, but confirmed the conviction of the appellants, changing, however, their conviction from Section 302 read with Section 149 to Section 302 read with Section 34. This appeal is by special leave against the said conviction and sentence.

2. Mange Ram and appellant Deep Chand are brothers. Appellants Dharam Singh and Fateh Singh are also brothers and applicant Mohinder Singh is the son of Dharam Singh.

3. According to the prosecution, the relations between the said Mange Ram and the appellants on the one hand and the deceased Des Raj and his cousin, Daryao Singh, on the other were strained for a number of reasons, one of them was that Mange Ram suspected that his father, Gumani Ram, had been killed by the deceased, Des Raj. There was, besides, political rivalr