Judgment

REDDY, J.:- This is an appeal by the State against the judgment of the Allahabad High Court.

2. 18 persons were tried by the IInd Additional District & Sessions Judge, Kheri for several offences under Ss. 148, 302, 323, 304, 395, 396, I.P.C. They were alleged to have committed dacoity and murdered five persons on the intervening night of 1st and 2nd November, 1972 in the house of Kallaktar, one of the deceased in village Bamhniyarpur in Kheri District. It was also alleged that these bandits took away Km. Sarla from that house whose dead body was discovered lateron in a field. According to the prosecution while one of the deceased Kallaktar, his brother and another deceased were undergoing imprisonment in the jail, Amar Singh, brother of the accused Mulaim Singh, who was residing in the house of Kallaktar developed illicit intimacy with Km. Sarla. After the release of Kallaktar and his other associates mysteriously Amar Singh disappeared and it was suspected that Kallaktar and his family members were responsible for his disappearance. Since then there was enmity. Therefore, all the 18 accused raided the house of Kallaktar and committed these offences.

3. The learned Sessions J