Shah, J. - (1.) By the judgment and order dated 2-3-1998 the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad in Criminal Appeal No. 920 of 1996 convicted the appellants and reversed the acquittal order passed by the IInd Additional Sessions Judge in Sessions Case No. 13 of 1992. Before the trial Court, there were six accused in all. The High Court convicted A-1, A-2, A-3 and A-5 for the offences punishable under Sections 148 and 302 read with Section 149, IPC and sentenced them to undergo R.I. for life and also to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- each in default of payment of fine, simple imprisonment for six months. A-4 and A-6 were acquitted. That conviction order is challenged in this appeal.
(2.) It is the prosecution version that on 26-9-1990 at around 10.30 p.m. on the outskirts of Gangireddipalli near coconut garden, accused committed the murder of deceased Rachapalle Devachandra Reddy. The alleged motive is that accused No. 1 resident of Moramkindapalli hamlet of Guriginjakunta village was dealer of Fair Price shop of that village. He was committing certain irregularities while distributing essential commodities. The villagers including the deceased lodged a complaint against A-1 to the R.D.O., Cuddapah. On the basis of the said complaint, the R.D.O. suspended the dealership of A-1 and in his place appointed P.W. 5 Sadhu Ananda Reddi of Yerrakalvapalli as a temporary dealer of the Fair Price shop of that village. As a result of suspension of his dealership, A-1 bore grudge against the deceased. Abbavaram Ramachandra Reddi P.W. 1 is the brother of the wife of the deceased. It is the say of P.W. 1 that he went to the residence of the deceased on his request to help him in his harvesting activity of Sericulture crop prior to the date of the incident; on 26-9-1990 at 8.00 a.m. he along with deceased and P.W. 10 boarded the RTC bus at Mallapalli village to go to Rayachoti. After getting down at Rayachoti bus stand at 9.00 a.m., they met one Sadhu Anna Reddi (PW5). All of them took coffee at the bus stand. Thereafter, P.Ws. 5 and 10 went to M.R.O.'s office, Sambepalli to lift rice and sugar as P.W. 5 was given dealership in Fair Price shop at village Guriginjakunta. P.W. 1 and the deceased went to the office of Sericulture at about 10.30 a.m. from where they were directed to come back at 1.30 p.m. Hence after taking meals they went back to that Office at 1.30 p.m. They remained in the Office till 3.00 p.m. Thereafter they came back to the bus stand, waited for Sadhu Anna Reddy and Settipalli Venkataramanareddi (P.Ws. 5 and 10) who came there at about 4.00 p.m. All of them went to godown at about 5.00 p.m. They returned at the bus stand at 6 p.m. From there they again went to the Revenue Inspector's house (Pradeep Kumar P.W. 12) and remained with him till 8.00 p.m. Thereafter, they went to the house of Bhaskar Reddi (P.W. 7) who was working as a Head Clerk in the Revenue Inspector's office at Sambepalli. From that place, all of them returned to the bus stand at 9.30 p.m. They boarded bus in order to go to village Gangireddigaripalli. Bus tickets were purchased by P.W. 5 for all of them. P.W. 5 got down at village Kathivaripalli after handing over the bus tickets to P.W. 10. All the three got down at village Malapalli at 10.15 p.m. For going to village Gangireddigaripalli, they proceeded on the cart track. It is the say of P.W. 1 that he was having a torch bearing 3 cells and the deceased was proceeding 5 yards ahead of both of them. When the deceased was going in his garden, they heard the sound and on inquiry by the deceased, they found accused Nos. 1 to 6 with deadly weapons. This was noticed after focussing torch light on them. It is the say of P.W. 1 that accused No. 1 was armed with spear, A2 and 3 were having hunting sickles, A4 and 5 were armed with daggers and A6 was armed with a metallic stick. Thereafter, the accused surrounded the deceased and started assaulting him with their respective weapons. On receipt of injuries, the deceased fell down. When they tried to intervene and asked as to why they were attacking the deceased, accused tried to attack the witnesses and chased them, but they ran awary. After reaching the house of the deceased they informed about the incident to the wife and the children of the deceased. All of them went at the spot and found the deceased dead having multiple bleeding injuries.
(3.) It is the say of the eye-witnesses that at night time as there was no transport facility available to go to the police station which is at a distance of 16 k.ms. from the place of incident, P.W. 1 boarded the RTC bus in the early morning at 5.30 a.m., reached the police station and lodged the FIR at 7.30 a.m. At about 8.00 a.m., the Circle Inspector came to the police station and visited the scene of offence at about 9.30 a.m. At the scene of offence, the statements of witnesses were recorded. The I.O. held inquest on the dead body at about 11.30 a.m. He also seized blood stained clothes of the deceased and other articles like torch light.;