Judgment

Raju, J.—These two appeals are at the instance of twelve accused, who remained convicted throughout after acquittal at different stages of the remaining accused out of the total number of 25 who stood charged before the learned Sessions Judge, Barpeta, for offences under Sec­tions 302 and 201 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code [for short ‘IPC’].

2. The necessary facts for appreciating the grievance of the appel­lants are that the case had its origin initially with a G.D. Entry No. 115 on 3.8.1989 registered at Barpeta Police Station at 6.30 P.M. on verbal information followed by a formal written FIR that was lodged by one Rupchan Mia, on the same day at 7.00 P.M. As per the version in the FIR, on the fateful day, i.e., 3.8.1989, at about 4.00 P.M. when three persons viz., Tara Mia, Saket Ali and Owaz Kha were fish­ing in the Dhaneswari Beel, the accused armed with sticks, spears and other deadly weapons ­attacked those persons inflicting serious in­juries resulting in their death and thereafter dragged the dead bodies and threw them in the Pahumara River. At the time of occurrence, hue and cry was also said to have been raised attracting crowd, which included w