JUDGMENT

Behera, J. The appellant Harihar, his brothers Makhnu and Srikar, his sons Safei (appellant) and Souki and Kartika alias Bidyadhar, the son-in-law of Makhnu, stood trial in the court of the learned Sessions Judge, Sambalpur, being charged under section 148 of the Indian Penal Code (for short, the 'Code') for being members of an unlawful assembly and for having committed rioting being armed with deadly weapons, such as, Tabal, axes, spear and lath is, under section 302 read with section 149 of the Code for committing the. murder of Gurucnaran Singh (hereinafter referred to as the deceased) in furtherance of their common object by assaulting him to death and under section 323 read with section 149 of the Code for voluntarily causing hurt to Bhola Singh (P.W.13) in furtherance of their common object on August 7,1979, in village Bichhuan in the district of Sambalpur. The acts were committed by the appellants, as alleged, because of a long standing dispute over the possession of a piece of land between the accused persons on the one hand and P.W.13 and his father on the other, for which criminal litigation was pending at the time of the occurence and this land had been given on