Important Point
If no prejudice is shown, the conviction must stand.

Judgment

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1.Heard learned counsel for the parties.

2.These two appeals, one by the complainant Dumpala Chandra Reddy and other by the State of A.P. question the correctness of Judgment of a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which, while holding that the respondents were responsible for causing the death of one Gangireddigari Kondareddy (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’) convicted them in terms of Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short ‘the IPC’) instead of Section 302 IPC as was done by the Trial Court.

3.The respondents, along with one Nimmakayala Lakshmi Reddy (A-8) s/o Obul Reddy faced trial for alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 148, 302 IPC and in respect of the deceased A-8, Section 114 IPC. The Trial Court found the accused persons guilty of offences punishable under Section 148 IPC and also under Section 302 IPC. For the former offence, they were directed to undergo sentence of two years while for the latter offence, life imprisonment was imposed.

4.Substance of the accusations, which led to the trial, is as follows.

All the accused are residents of Gopalapuram village. The deceased was a resident of Khajipalli village. PWs 1 and 3 are also the residents of Khajipalli village. PWs 1 and 2 are the brother-in-laws of the deceased and PW3 is the brother of the deceased. Originally, all the accused were residents of Khajipalli village. Due to factions with the deceased’s family, the deceased left the village and migrated to Gopalapuram village. About 18 years ago, A-8’s brother’s son by name Pattabhi Reddy married one Dumpala Munemma, resident of Khajipalli village. Munemma is related to the family of the deceased. A-2 and A-4 are brothers of Pattabhi Reddy. Pattabhi Reddy deserted his wife Munemma, resident of Khajipalli village. Due to that, there were differences between the accused and the deceased and also there were criminal cases filed against each other. Accused persons were residents of Khajipalli village. After filing of the criminal cases, the accused left Khajipalli and settled down at Gopalapuram. About 8 years prior to the murder of the deceased, A-2, A-4 and Pattabhi Reddy had stabbed PW3 and the deceased in a lane by the side of Sangham Lodge at Cuddapah. One year thereafter Nimmakayala Gangireddy was murdered in Khajipalli village in the fields. In that regard, a criminal case was filed against the deceased family and that criminal case ended in acquittal. After that incident, the deceased’s family alongwith his brothers settled down at Hyderabad and was running a motor rewinding workshop.

On the date of the incident i.e. on 25.12.1995, the deceased went to his village from Hyderabad in the morning hours. After sometime the deceased took PW-1 and went to Patha Cuddapah to fix up the marriage date of his younger brother. The deceased and PW-1 took Lingamappli bus at the village at about 8.30 A.M. and reached Cuddapah at 9.30 A.M. PW-1 and the deceased went to see one Raja Reddy, who happened to be the proprietor of Sangham Medical Stores, and they found that Raja Reddy was not available in the medical shop and then they went to Venkateswara Cloth Stores. By that time, Venkateswara Reddy, a resident of Balisingapalli, was also present in the cloth shop. The deceased telephoned Raja Reddy. After sometime Raja came to the cloth shop and they were talking to each other at the shop. After sometime, the deceased, PW1, Venkata Subba Reddy and Raja Reddy went to Manasa Hotel situated in Madras road. At about 2.30 P.M. the deceased along with others went to the house of Rama Subba Reddy to fix up the marriage date of the brother of the deceased. The marriage date was fixed as 31.01.1996. Then all of them went to Venkateswara Cloth shop and again from there, they went to the medical shop of Raja Reddy and stayed there for sometime. Thereafter the deceased, PW-1 and Venkata Subba Reddy went to Mithen hotel for drinking tea. At that time, i.e.