JUDGMENT - B.G. DEO, J.:---This is an appeal by the wife and minor children of a Jeep Driver Sk. Abdulla, who was employed by the Managing Director, Maharashtra State Land Development Bank Ltd., Bombay the respondent No. 2 and was at the relevant time working with the respondent No. 1, the District Branch Manager, Land Development Bank Ltd., who, while he the driver had taken the Officers of the Bank at Beed to the village Renapur in the jeep of the Bank on 21st March, 1980 in connection with the recovery proceedings conducted by the Bank and while he had rested the jeep in the Rest House and had gone to the Market at Renapur, was assaulted by some unknown persons in the crowd in the market and was found dead. He was taken to the Police Station. The appeal is for compensation under section 30 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1928, on account of the death of the jeep driver Sk. Abdulla, on the ground that the death was caused of Sk. Abdulla, a workman by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment on 21st March, 1980.

2. The appellants have served the respondents with a notice on 9-2-1981 for compensation of Rs. 24,000/- but in vain. The respondent No. 2 did not participate in the proceedings. The respondent No.1 District Branch Manager filed his written statement and opposed the claim.

3. Both the sides adduced the evidence and the sum of the total evidence, marshalled by the learned Civil Judge, Senior Division, Beed is not in dispute. The pleas raised by the respondents found favour with the learned Judge-Commissioner. It was held that the death of Sk. Abdulla was not the result of an accident arising out of and during the course of his employment. The learned Judge accepted the contention that the assault on Sk. Abdulla in the market place was not committed due to a tense situation created in the village by recovery staff of the Bank on the ground that there was no such plea taken by the appellants. Even assuming that the death of Sk. Abdulla was the result of such a tense situation, the learned Judge observed that there was no reason to commit the assault on the jeep driver. The target should have been the Officers of the Bank rather than a poor Jeep Driver. The learned Judge relying on A.I.R. 1960 Bom. 387 (Mohanlal Prabhuram v. Fine Knitting Mills Co. Ltd., Ahmedabad)1, came to the conclusion that the facts of that case were different from the facts of the instant case and it cannot, therefore, be held that the death was incidental to the employment of Sk. Abdulla. It was observed by the Judge that the record in the instant case regarding the cause of assault vis-a-vis the motive is silent and that the record does not show that as to how the quarrel had started in the market and by whom.

4. The position of the facts in the present case, therefore, is that a jeep driver in the employment of the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 while he had gone on duty to village Renapur and had taken the Bank Officers to that village on 21st March, 1980, which was a weekly bazar day of village Renapur, had rested his jeep at the Rest House with permission of the officers and had possibly wandered in the market and was murdered by some persons in the mob and his dead body was handed over to the Bank Officers by the Police Station on that day. The alleged assailants of Sk. Abdulla, it appears, were later on prosecuted and were acquitted. No record of the said prosecution nor even the judgment of the case has been placed on record in spite of an opportunity given to the respondents to produce at least the judgment.

5. The sole question for consideration in this appeal is whether the death of Sk. Abdulla arose out of and during the course of the employment with the respondent. An accident means a mishap or untoward event not expected or designed by a workman. It is pertinent to observe in this connection that the mishap of the accident which occurred in a weekly bazar, where the workman had gone after resting his jeep in the Rest House,

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