Judgment :-

V.S. Sirpurkar, J.

This appeal is directed against the judgment of the High Court whereby the High Court upset the judgment of the Trial Court, acquitting all the accused persons. The High Court, in the impugned judgment, has maintained the verdict of acquittal in case of others while the verdict in case of Boddella Babul Reddy (appellant herein), who was the original accused No. 1 (A-1) was upset and he was convicted of the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as IPC for short).

2. As many as 16 accused person came to be tried for the various offences by the Trial Court including offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 324, 326, 307 and 302; IPC read with Section 149, IPC; Sections 3 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act and Section 25(1)(b) and 27 of the Indian Arms Act.

3. As per the prosecution case, all the accused persons and the witnesses were the residents of village Sankarpuram of Proddatur Mandal in Kadappa District. As usual, there were two factions in the village, one belonging to the Congress Party and the other belonging to the Telugu Desam Party. All the original accused persons, including the appellan