Judgment

Thomas, J.-A manslaughter in an automobile in locomotion is the subject matter of this case. The slaughtered man was a Home Guard personnel, by name Sardar Singh Thakur. When he boarded the bus des­tined to Neseerabad on the evening of 20.7.1985, he had no foreboding that it was his last journey alive. Before the bus could reach its terminus he was finished by armed assailants inside the vehicle while it was in motion. Appellants (Rammi alias Rameshwar and Bhura alias Sajjan Kumar) were two of the three persons arraigned before the Sessions Court. Though the Sessions Judge acquitted all of them a Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh convicted the two appellants under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC and sentenced them to imprisonment for life. The third accused (Suresh alias Chhigga) died before the appeal was decided by the High Court. These appeals were filed by the two convicted persons as of right under Section 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short ‘the Code’) and under Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Crimi­nal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970.

2. The story of the prosecution, as revealed through evidence, can be summar