Conviction under IPC for murder and rioting upheld due to consistent eyewitness accounts indicating unbroken chain of evidence.

1. These appeals are directed against the judgment dated 17-9-1993 passed in Sessions Trial No. 103/88 by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Bilaspur. By the impugned judgment, the appellants have been convicted and sentenced in the following manner with further direction to run the sentences concurrently : -

2. The facts, briefly stated, are as under : -
Firatram (PW 12) had purchased the lands of Smt. Foolbai, sister of Lehararam Satnami (A - 5). There was dispute regarding the said land. Earlier, the reports were also lodged regarding small disputes. In fact, on that account, villagers had divided into two groups. On 25-7-1987 at about 3.00 p.m. small children of both the groups quarreled, on which, Sahasram (PW 13) intervened. Hetram (A - 2) and Janiram (A - 1) quarrelled with Sahasram. Janiram assaulted him by tabbal and Hetram assaulted him by lathi. Shatrugan (since deceased) and Supetan - Up - Sarpanch (since deceased) came there for rescue. Seeing this, the remaining accused persons, came there with deadly weapons, all formed an unlawful assembly, participated in rioting and in furtherance of the common object of the unlawful assembly committed murder of deceased Supetan and they assaulted Shatrugan, Umedram (PW 16), Sahasram (PW 13), Tirathram (PW 4), Neekram (PW 15), Firatram (PW 12) and Smt. Gangamati (PW 11). Supetan, thus lost his life and 7 persons, including deceased Shatrugan who later on died during the course of his treatment, received various injuries in the said incident. At about 8.15 p.m., the matter was reported to the concerned police station by Kamta Prasad (PW 14), on which, the First Information Report (Ext. P26) was registered. The FIR contains the names of all the appellants and other accused persons. It also contains the names of injured eye - witnesses and the deceased with almost full details of the incident. Injured persons were sent for their medical examination through requisition memos Ext. P78 to Ext. P87. They were examined by Dr. P. K. Narula (PW 23). He noticed following injuries on the injured persons : -
Umedram (PW 16) :
(i) Incised wound 7 cm x 0.5 cm on the right parietal region;
(ii) Contusion reddish in colour 10 cm x 2 cm on the right scapular region. Injuries were simple.
His injury report is Ext. P78 - A.
Shatrugan (later died during the treatment):
(i) Incised wound 12 cm x 1.2 cm on right parietal region having fracture of underline bone;
(ii) Incised wound 5 cm x 0.8 cm on right occipital region;
(iii) Abrasion 3 cm x 1 cm on left leg;
(iv) Abrasion 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm on middle 1/3rd portion of left leg;
(v) Abrasion 1 cm x 1 cm on the lateral side of left elbow. Injury Nos. (i) and (ii) were caused by sharp edged weapon, whereas the other injuries were caused by hard and rough object. Injury No. (i) was endangerous to life. His general condition was not good, therefore, he was admitted in the hospital. His injury report is Ext. P79 - A.
Sahasram (PW 13) :
(i) Incised wound 4 cm x 1cm on the right parietal region;
(ii) Incised wound 6 cm x 0.5 cm on the left parietal region;
(iii) Contusion 15 cm x 15 cm on middle of the left thigh;
(iv) Contusion 15 cm x 2 cm on the right scapular region;
(v) Contusion 15 cm x 2 cm on the left scapular region.
Injury Nos. (i) and (ii) were caused by sharp edged weapon and injury Nos. (iii) to (v) were caused by hard and rough object. Injury Nos. (ii) to (v) were simple injuries. He was also admitted in the hospital. His injury report is Ext. P80 - A.
Tirathram (PW 4) :
(i) Incised wound 4 cm x 0.5 cm on right fronto parietal region;
(ii) Lacerated wound 1.5 cm x 0.3 cm on the l