Judgment

JAGANMOHAN REDDY J.:- Eight accused were charged by the Additional Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur, of offiences of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft etc. in respect of an incident which took place on June 9, 1968 at about 9 P.M. in the village of Sathiali, Tarlok Singh accused-1, Avtar Singh accused-4, Upar Singh accused-5, are brothers,Gurdial Singh accused-6 is their relation, Ajit Singh accused-2, Dilbagh Rai accused-7 and Saudagar Singh accused-8 are said to be drinking friends of the accused. Daljit Kaur accused-3 is the wife of Manjit Pal Singh s/o the village Pradhan Harcharan Singh P.W.9. The prosecution case against the accused is that Daljit Kaur who is married to Manjit Pal Singh did not want to live in the house of her father-in-law and her husband, because according to her the father-in-law had an evil eye on her and she wanted to go away to her sister s place. According to the prosecution, Harcharan Singh who is said to be aged 90 years had three sons, two of them withwhom he did not have good relationship lived separately from him at Amritsar and Batala, while Manjit Pal Singh was living with him. Tarlok Singh accused-1 and his brothers were related to