Judgment

BEG, J. :- The three appellants Laxman (aged 30 at the time of trial), Sopan (aged 18 at the time of trial) and Sakharam (aged 40 years at the time of trial), residents of village Walana were acquitted of charges under Section 302 read with S. 34 I.P.C. by the learned Sessions Judge of Parbhani. The trial court had declared the testimony of the only eye witness, Sudam Sakharam, P.W. 17, to be unworthy of credence. Neither the several dying declarations of the deceased Narain Rao in which he gave out the names of the three appellants as his assailants nor other facts and circumstances, such as the recovery on a pointing out by Sopan of the "Rumna said to have been used for the murderous attack, were held by the trial Court to be sufficient to corroborate the version of the eye witness. On an appeal against the acquittal, a Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay had elaborately discussed each one of the reasons given by the learned Sessions Judge for discarding the testimony of Sudam, corroborated by other facts and circumstances, and found the logic behind the trial court s reasoning to be unsound. The High Court had also criticised the learned Sessions Judge in treati