( 1 ) THE State of Karnataka has, through this appeal, assailed the order of acquittal passed in favour of accused Nos. 1 to 6 in S. C. No. 165/91 by the learned II Additional Sessions Judge, Belgaum. The accused are charged for having committed offences punishable under Sections 143, 147, 148, 323, 427, 342, 448, 429 and 302 read with Sec. 149, I. P. C. It was alleged that on the night of 25-5-1991, at Kenchanahatti Village, the accused persons, in furtherance of their common objective, had formed an unlawful assembly and that they had assaulted some of the prosecution witnesses, but the main allegation is that they had committed the murder of one Basappa Shetappa Jambali, Briefly stated, the allegation was that pursuant to some level of hostility between the two parties, at about the time of the incident, the accused persons got into an altercation with the prosecution witnesses in the course of which they abused them, assaulted them, pelted stones on that house of these persons and when all of them ran into the house, the accused are alleged to have locked the outer door and confined them inside the house.

( 2 ) PW-16, Basappa Shivappa Naik, had gone to fetch the