JUDGMENTBY: WILLAN, CJ

The appellant was convicted of the murder of a Sikh named Achar Singh. The date of the offence was the 7th June, 1948.

The facts are that the deceased and three other Indians -- Lall Din, Shah Mohamed and Ali Mohamed (all witnesses at the trial) -- lived in one house which belonged to the deceased. Those three Indian witnesses all retired to bed in that house about 8 p.m. on the 7th of June, 1948, and their evidence is that they were awakened at about 9 p.m. by shouts from outside the house by the deceased that he was being killed. At that time there was a small kerosene oil lamp -- a tin lamp with a wick but without a glass -- burning in the deceaseds house, and each of those three witnesses said that that lamp gave sufficient light to enable them to see what was happening outside the house. Their evidence as to what happened is generally consistent, and is that each of them saw the appellant and another Sikh, named Duleep Singh, beating the deceased with sticks. They had each of them known the appellant prior to this incident. Each said that, after beating the deceased, both the appellant and Duleep Singh left him lying on the ground and ran away. After