JUDGMENT

There are five appellants. The appeal is filed under the provisions of the Supreme Court (Enlargement) of Jurisdiction Act. These five appellants (A-1, A-2, A-4, A-5, and A-7) along with seven others were tried for offences punishable under Ss. 148, 302 read with Section 149 and Sec. 307 read with Sec. 149, I.P.C. The trial Court acquitted all of them. The State preferred on appeal. The High Court while confirming acquittal of other seven convicted the present appellants under S. 302, I.P.C. read with S. 149 and sentenced them to imprisonment for life in respect of the death of Jeet Bahadur Singh the deceased in the case. They are further convicted under Section 307 read with Section 149, I.P.C. and sentenced them to undergo four years R.I. for attempting to commit the murder of Jeet Bahadur Singh, PW 1, in the case. They are also convicted under Section 143, I.P.C. and sentenced to one year R.I. while Shamsher Bahadur Singh, A-1, is further convicted under Section 147, I.P.C. and sentenced to one year R. I. All the sentences were directed to run concurrently. The prosecution case is as follows:

All the accused and the deceased and the material witnesses belong to village Chandipur, District Faizabad. The deceased was real brother of PW 1. The six of the accused are related to each other. The six other were members of the party of A-1. There was enmity between the accused on one hand and the deceased and PW 1 on the other. There were number of instances preceding the occurrence which created ill feelings between the two groups. There were cases pending. The deceased was the Pradhan of his village since a long time. In 1972 the election was held and he contested it and one Ram Deo was the rival candidate and the accused was supporting him. The voting took place on 20-5-1972 in the Primary School. Up to 1.30 p.m. on that day the deceased is stated to have polled more votes and was likely to succeed. All the accused formed an unlawful assembly with the common object of committing the murder of the deceased and PW 1 and concealed themselves in the culvert which is about 100 paces to the north of the Primary School. It is further alleged that at 4.30 p.m. the deceased and P.W.1 and others left the polling booth for their village after casting their votes. When they were at a distance of about 20 paces to the south of the culvert A-1 and A-5 came out from the culvert and challenged them. A-1, Shamsher Singh, was armed with a lathi and Bansraj Singh had a spear. Thereupon the other accused also came out. Out of them, A-2 was armed with a gun; A-4 with a country-made pistol and A-7 with a gun and others were armed with lathies. They rushed towards the deceased and seeing them the latter ran away. In order to save themselves PW 1 concealed himself behind a Mahua tree and the deceased took shelter of a charan (cattle trough). The accused continued the chase and A-7 fired a shot from his gun at PW 1 and he received the injuries. A-2 and A-4 then fired one shot each from their country-made pistol and gun respectively and caused serious injuries to the deceased. Thereafter, all the accused made good their escape. One Kapil Deo Singh and others removed the corpse of the deceased and placed it at the door of Lurkhur. PW 1 wrote a report and went to the police station and delivered the report on the basis of which crime was registered. The investigation was taken up by the Station House Officer and he recorded the statement of PW 1, reached the scene of occurrence, sent PW 1 for treatment and held the inquest on the dead body and sent the dead body for post-mortem.

2. On PW 1 the doctor found six cut wounds and abrasions. He found burning tatooing or singing of the hair in or around the injuries. Injuries were simple and approximate duration was one day. These injuries could be caused by pellets fired from a shot gun, from a fairly long range. No pellet could be detached from the wound. The doctor who conducted the post-mortem on the d