JUDGMENT - DAUD S.M., J.:—These appeals by the appellants who shall hereinafter be referred to as accused Nos. 1 and 2 take exception to the conviction and sentence recorded against them for the commission of the offence of murder in furtherance of a common intention punishable under sections 302 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

2. Accused are the sons of Ghudubhai Fulari a cultivator of village Bodole Budruk, Taluka Akkalkot, District Solapur. Deceased Dashrat Laxman Gaikwad was a cultivator owning land adjacent to that owned by Ghudubhai. Ghudubhai on the one hand and Dashrat on the other were involved in a long drawn out litigation over the boundary between the pieces of land owned by them. Ghudu's suit against Dashrat and his sons registered as R.C.S. No. 66 of 1982 was dismissed by the learned Civil Judge, Junior Division of Akkalkot and the appeal preferred by him to the District Court at Solapur registered as Civil Appeal No. 299 of 1984, yielded no better result. This left behind a trail of bitterness harboured by not only Ghudubhai, but also his sons, the accused.

3. On 15-5-1988 which was a Sunday, Dashrat left his house for working in the field at about 10.00 A.M. He had left word that he would be returning early for lunch and as this had not happened his wife P.W. 2 Kallawwa started for the field to find out for herself as to what had delayed her husband. Just at that time Jyoti Kamble was working in a nearby field owned by Shrimanth Gaikwad, Jyoti then being in the employ of the said Shrimanth. P. W. 4 Chidanand Swami who owns another field adjacent to that of Dashrat had finished grazing his cow and was going with the animal towards the Gaothan. Suddenly Jyoti and Chidanand heard an uproar and this led them to take steps for ascertaining as to what had caused the noise. They saw Dashrat being beaten up by the accused—accused No.1 using an axe for that purpose and accused No. 2 a stick. Dashrat fell to the ground and the horror-stricken Jyoti went running in the direction of the Gaothan. On the way he met Kallawwa and she was informed by that person of all what that person had seen. Jyoti also spoke to one Uttam Gaikwad who in turn passed on the information to P.W. 5 Sidramappa, Police Patil of the village. Sidramappa went to the scene of offence and there saw the corpse of Dashrat lying in a pool of blood. The village Kotwal was directed to stay at the spot and Sidramappa went to Sangvi which is within walking distance of Badole Budruk. The visit to Sangvi was with a view to take advantage of the facility of a telephone to ring up the Akkalkot North Police Station. Sidramappa managed to connect with the said Police Station but could not give the complete report because of a disconnection. He therefore started to walk down the distance to Akkalkot. On the way he came across a Police Jeep with P.W. 9 P.S.I. Jadhav therein. Jadhav had been alerted by Head Constable Rajmane who had taken the phone call put in by Sidramappa. Sidramappa got into the jeep of Jadhav and both of them went to the scene of offence. Kallawwa's statement was recorded by Jadhav and the said statement is at Exh. 18. Jadhav drew up a scene of offence panchanama which is at Exh. 24. The corpse of Dashrat was sent to the Medical Officer, Akkalkot. Here P.W. l Dr. Gaikwad performed a post-mortem examination and the notes of the said examination are at Exh. 14. Column 17 of the said notes points to the existence of four external injuries on the corpse, two being incised wounds. The third was a depressed fracture of the left maxilla bone and the nasal bone. The fourth injury was a bite mark. The first three injuries were ante mortem and the 4th a post mortem injury. Death according to Dr. Gaikwad was due to shock following excessive bleeding. In his evidence Dr. Gaikwad opined that the first three injuries taken together and the first injury by itself, were sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death. P.S.I. Jadhav arrested the ac

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