Rajendra Babu, J. - (1.)22 persons were charged by the Court of Session, Solapur on the allegation that they formed an unlawful assembly with the common object of murdering Vithal and causing injury to Bhimrao, the brother of Vithal, and to cause damage to the 'wada' at Dambaldar. After trial most of them stood convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 and Section 440 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code [IPC] and accused Nos. 14, 18 and 19 were also charged and convicted under Section 323 read with Section 34, IPC for having caused simple hurt to Bhimrao. On appeal, the High Court acquitted some more accused but confirmed the conviction and sentence in regard to others. Accused Nos. 1 to 3 and 14 to 19 are in appeal before us. We are not concerned with other accused.
(2.)This Court granted leave by an order made on 18-7-1994 confining the same only to the question of the nature of offences disclosed. When the learned Senior Advocate Shri A.T.M. Rangaramanujam pitched his arguments a little too high to contend that the accused are entitled to plain acquittal, we made it clear to him that when the trial Court and the High Court on the basis of evidence have come to a conclusion one way or the other of their involvement in the incident in respect of which they were charged, we cannot re-appreciate the matter and come to a different conclusion. Thereafter, he confined his arguments only to the question of offence arising out of proved facts.
(3.)After analysing the evidence of PWs 15 and 16 and other material on record, the learned Sessions Judge held that accused No. 1 went to the 'vasti' of Vithal along with some of the accused and was following Vithal up to his 'wada'; that when Vithal and Bhimrao were inside he charged on the servant to scare him away as he was pleading to protect the members of his master's family. He held that he shared the common object to murder Vithal, though the circumstances in the case may not suggest that he was sharing the common object to murder Bhimrao but to cause him hurt.