Judgement

K. JAYACHANDRA REDDY, J. :- These are all connected appeals and arise out of the judgment of the Patna High Court in Criminal Appeals Nos. 219 and 231 of 1981. The prosecution case is as follows:

On 25-3-1978 at about 11 A.M. persons of several villages gathered in village Bisharam four miles away from P. S. Dinara in District Rohtas. They were variously armed with rifles, guns, bhalas (spear), lathis etc. and the mob was searching for some persons in the village and the villagers fled in all directions. It is also alleged that the mob set some houses on fire and ransacked them. On receiving information P.W. 8, a Police Officer came there and the mob fled. According to the prosecution in all four persons were killed. Two of them got burnt and the other two were not traced. Therefore, according to the prosecution those two must have died or must have been abducted by the mob. The prosecution examined P.Ws.1 to 12, 14, 16, 18, 22 and 30 as eye-witnesses. After completion of the investigation the charge-sheet was laid. The learned Sessions Judge who tried the case convicted all the appellants under S.364 read with S.149, S.436 read with S.149 and S. 395 and sentenced each of t