Judgement

NARASIMHAM, J. :- This is an appeal from the judgment of the Sessions Judge of Mayurbhanj convicting the appellants under Ss. 147, 148, 326 and 326/149, I.P.C. and sentencing them to various terms of rigorous imprisonment.

2. The appellants are all residents of village Ambo, P.S. Anandapur in the district of Keonjhar. It is admitted that there are two parties in that village hostile to each other. One party is led by the Zamindar of the village known as Shri Bhuyan Sarat Chandra Mangaraj Mohapatra and the rival party is led by appellant Harihar Patnaik. The trouble seems to have arisen sometime after the abolition of the zamindary by the State Government. The Zamindar then transferred some of the communal lands of the village in favour of his son, wife and family deity. His rival party, however, challenged these transfers and agitated the matter before the higher authorities. There was a ferry across the river Baitarani which flows by the side of the village and while the Zamindar was claiming the ferry as his own, the other villagers were claiming it as Sarbasadharan property. The Harijans of the village, however, were on the side of the Zamindar. One Jagabandhu Majhi (who