IMPORTANT POINT
The fact that the deceased died from one single blow on his head and others in the group suffered injuries only on back and lower limbs cannot indicate intention to commit murder of deceased.

JUDGMENT

A.K. SIKRI, J.

In all these appeals, there are 21 number of appellants who are all convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 307, 324, 336, 427, 506-II, 148 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short the 'IPC') by the Additional Sessions Judge, Nagpur vide his judgment dated 05.02.2010, which is substantially upheld by the High Court vide impugned judgment dated 24.01.2011. Judgment of the High Court in the criminal appeals, that were filed by the appellants, allowed the appeals in part thereby altering the charge under Section 307 IPC to Section 324 of the IPC. However, rest of the conviction recorded by the trial court has been maintained.

2. The appellants are the residents of Village Badegaon, Taluka Saoner, Nagpur. Victims of the said crime are also residents of the same village. Persons belonging to the victim's group (known as Deshmukh Group) as well as those who are accused persons (known as Choudhary Group) are the two rival political groups active in the village politics. On 24.10.2002, elections for Village Panchayat, Badegaon took place. The appellants were supporting Samata Party and four of their candidates got elected in the said elections. On the other hand, Deshmukh Group was representing Shetkari Shet Majoor Party and five of their candidates were elected in the said elections. Shetkari Shet Majoor Party was led by Vijay Deshmukh and Samata Party was led by Bhujangrao Choudhary. Two days after the elections i.e. on 26.10.2002, the incident in question took place.

3. As per the prosecution, members of the group of accused persons hatched a conspiracy to eliminate leading members of Deshmukh family for taking revenge of their defeat in Gram Panchayat election and in furtherance of their common object, committed the murder of Ashok Deshmukh, and attempted to commit murder of Vilas Deshmukh, Vivek Deshmukh (PW-9 and PW-8 respectively), assaulted Dinesh Deshmukh, Arun Deshmukh, Prafulla Deshmukh, Sau. Kalpana Deshmukh and Smt. Kausabai Choudhary (PW-6, PW-7, PW-13, PW-10 and PW-11 respectively), pelted stones on the houses of Deorao Nakhale and Bhimrao Nakhale (PW-12 and PW-16 respectively) and damaged the scooter of PW-4 Sushil Deshmukh. The incident was witnessed by seven injured witnesses and four eyewitnesses.

4. The prosecution examined, altogether, 26 witnesses. Out of these, PW-6, PW- 7, PW-8, PW-9, PW-10, PW-11 and PW-13 were the injured eyewitnesses and PW- 2, PW-4, PW-5 and PW-18 were eyewitnesses who did not suffer any injury in the incident. Other witnesses are the doctors (who examined the injured persons and conducted postmortem of the deceased Ashok Deshmukh), Investigating Officer, Executive Magistrate, Panch and other witnesses. On the other hand, defence examined 16 witnesses in all.

5. It may be pointed out that there was no dispute that death of Ashok Deshmukh was homicidal in nature and the testimony of the doctors on this account is not under challenge. However, in respect of those who suffered injuries, dispute was as to whether injuries were such that there was an attempt to murder these persons. The trial court convicted the accused persons under Section 307 IPC accepting the version of the prosecution. However, the High Court in the impugned judgment has converted the conviction from Section 307 IPC to Section 324 IPC. Since, neither the State nor the victim has challenged this part, the acquittal of appellants under Section 307 IPC has attained finality.

6. We may also mention at this stage itself that there was no serious challenge by the learned counsel, who appeared for the appellants, at the time of arguments to the conviction of the appellants under Section 324 IPC. Even otherwise we find that the conviction under Section 324 IPC warrants to be sustained. In view thereof, the only question is as to whether appellants could be convicted of offence under Section 302 IPC along with Section 148 read with Section 149 IPC. Discussion hereinafter wou