S. N. Jha and I. P. Singh, JJ.

1. All these three appellants have been convicted under Sec.302 read with Sec.34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short the Penal Code) and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life appellant No.2 has further been convicted under Sec.324 of the Penal code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

2. Five accused persons were tried in S. T. No, 84 of 1987, out of them two were acquitted and the aforesaid three appellants have been convicted as indicated above.

3. The prosecution case, in short, is as follows: PW 1 Damodar Upadhaya gave a fardbeyan (Ext.2) on 12-4-1985 before the Officer Incharge, Chautarwa police station at his village Mathia in the district of West Champran alleging inter alia, that he along with Mallu Gorh (deceased) and Sitaram Gorai, PW 3 and one Amin, namely, Nand Kishore Prasad, PW 4 had gone to measure the land of deceased Mallu Gorh in Sareh in the same village. While the lands were being measured, the aforesaid appellants along with two other co-accused (since acquitted) came there armed with pharsa and Dabila and they abused the deceased Mallu Gorh and