ORDER

Thomas, J.-In this appeal, we passed an order even when special leave was granted that the consideration would be limited to the nature of offence. Appellant was the first accused. He was arraigned along with one Jabbar as second accused and another person as the third accused in a murder case. The trial court convicted all the three accused of the offence under section 302 read with section 34 for the murder of one Moulana Mohammed Yusuf Sheikh. The High Court acquitted the third accused but confirmed the conviction and sentence passed on the first and the second accused. We are told that the second accused preferred a special leave petition No. (2828 of 1999) before this Court and the same was dismissed. Subsequently, he filed a review petition which was also dismissed.

2. This appeal by the first accused has to be considered only on the limited question as to the nature of offence. For that purpose, we are proposing to extract the dying declaration relied on by the trial court and the High Court. The relevant portion of the dying declaration is extracted below:

"Today i.e. on 12.6.1992, I was standing in the verandah leaning against the wall of the gallery. At about 1 O clo