The testimony of a single witness, if credible, can be sufficient to prove the prosecution's case, and corroboration may not always be necessary.

Mohan M. Shantanagoudar, J. - The judgment and order of conviction convicting accused 1 and 2-appellants herein dated 26-2-2005 passed by the Fast Track Court-II, Bangalore City in Sessions Case No. 743 of 2003 is called in question in this appeal by the convicted accused 1 and 2. It is relevant to note that by the very impugned judgment, accused 3 to 5 are acquitted. State has not filed any appeal against the order of acquittal passed against them. Hence the judgment and order of acquittal passed against accused 3 to 5 has attained finality.

2. Five accused were charged for the offences punishable under Sections 120-B, 148 and 302 read with Section 149 of Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Trial Court, as aforementioned, has convicted accused 1 and 2 and acquitted accused 3 to 5.

3. Case of the prosecution in brief is that the deceased Manja alias Koli Manja was the friend of all the five accused; they used to have money transaction among them; the deceased was running the chicken retail outlet under the name H.P. Chicken Centre situated at 8th Cross, Saraswathipuram, Nandini Layout, Bangalore; all the accused being the friends of the deceased used to frequently visit the shop of the deceased and talk with him; they used to frequently go outside together. P.W. 9-Raghu after passing SSLC (X Std.) did not have any job in his village; with the help of his friend one Mr. Sandeep, he got the job in the shop of the deceased; since he developed faith in P.W. 9, he had handed over the keys of the shop in favour of P.W. 9; the shop was to be opened at 8.00 a.m. by P.W. 9 and he used to close the shop between 10.30 p.m. and 11.00 p.m. every day; P.W. 9 used to collect the sale proceeds and hand over the same to the deceased every night; P.W. 9 used to have his food in the house of the deceased and he used to sleep in the house of the deceased every day; wife of the deceased was pregnant during the relevant point of time and hence, she had been to her parents' place for the purpose of delivery of child. Consequently, the deceased and P.W. 9 only were living in the house of the deceased.

On the date of the incident i.e., on 26-4-2003, the deceased and P.W. 9 were in chicken shop upto 2.00 p.m.; as usual, the deceased had left the shop at 2.00 p.m. for lunch to his house; accused 1 to 4 came on two scooters to the chicken shop and asked P.W. 9 as to the whereabouts of the deceased; since P.W. 9 told accused 1 to 4 that the deceased had gone to his house for taking lunch, they left the shop and went away. At about 7.00 p.m., on the same day, the deceased and P.W. 9 were in the shop doing the business; at about 9 p.m., all the five accused came in autorickshaw; at that point of time, P.W. 9 left the chicken shop and went near the tent house for bringing the water from the said place; P.W. 9 used to go to the very place situated at tent house for bringing water for about 9-10 occasions every day for cleaning the dressed chicken; when he came back from the tent house with the water, he saw accused 1 and 2 assaulting the deceased with choppers (M.Os. 5 and 6) and at that point of time, accused 3 to 5 were standing mutely. The incident was over within five minutes. Immediately, all the accused fled away from the scene with the very autorickshaw with weapons. The victim fell down with the bleeding injuries in front of the chicken shop. Hundreds of people gathered on the spot. On getting information, the police arrived at the scene. However, none of the person gathered there were ready to lodge the complaint against the accused. P.W. 9 lodged the complaint at about 11.15 p.m. on the very day before P.W. 14-the PSI of Nandini Layout Police Station and based on which, Crime No. 118 of 2003 came to be registered for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of IPC. P.W. 14 conducted part of the investigation. FIR was filed with the jurisdictional Magistrate at about 3.30 a.m. on 24-7-2003. The investigation was handed over to In