Judgment

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1.Leave granted.

2.Appellants question correctness of the Judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

3.Sixteen persons including the appellants faced trial for alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 147,148, 448 read with Sections 149, 302 read with Section 149 and Section 324 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’) Learned III Additional Sessions judge, Karimnagar for each one of them guilty. In appeal, High Court upheld the conviction of A1, A3, A7 to A9, A12 and A13 and sentence of imprisonment for life as imposed by the trial court. Rest of the accused persons were acquitted. The present appeals are by A7 to A9 and A 13.

4.Background facts in a nutshell are as follows :

PW-1 is the wife,. PW-2 is the father, PW-3 is the mother, PW-4 is the brother and PW-5 is the sister-in-law of the deceased. The accused, deceased and the material witnesses are residents of Neerukulla village. The deceased purchased an Auto and was plying in between Sulthanabad and Neerukulla. On 02-07-2003 at about 9-00 PM, the deceased returned to his house from Sulthanabad and informed PWs.1 to 3 tha