JUDGMENT

AMITAVA ROY, J.

(1) Leave granted.

(2) The appellants hereby assail the affirmation of their conviction under Sections 147,148, 149 Indian Penal Code (for short, hereinafter to be referred to as “IPC”) as recorded by the Trial Court. By the decision impugned, the High Court, however has altered their conviction from one under Section 302 IPC to Section 304-Part I IPC. Thereby, the appellants now stand sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.5000/-, in default, to suffer simple imprisonment for further two months for this offence. All sentences have been ordered to accrue concurrently.

(3) We have heard Dr. J.P. Dhanda, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, learned counsel for the State.

(4) The genesis of the arraignment is traceable to the incident that witnessed the deadly assault on Lalni @ Raj Kumar, the brother of the informant Gaya Prasad, on 04.04.1982 at 1.00 p.m. within the precincts of the house of the deceased.

(5) As the first information laid at 3.15 p.m. on the same date would reveal, in the morning thereof, the cattle of the deceased had strayed into the fields of Suraj Bali and others and ha