- (1.)These appeals have been filed against the judgment and order passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court dated August 13, 1999, dismissing Criminal Appeals Nos. 1065, 1066 and 1092 of 1994 and upholding the conviction and sentences as awarded to the appellants by the trial Court.
(2.)In all 17 accused persons had been prosecuted, out of whom one accused A-3 died during the trial and the remaining 16 accused have been convicted under Ss. 302/149, I.P.C. and sentenced to imprisonment for life and some of them on two counts as well, and under various other sections with varying terms of imprisonment and fine, details of which are not necessary to be repeated for the purposes of disposal of these appeals. The present appeals before this Court have been filed on behalf of A-1, A-2 and A-4 to A-17. It will be convenient to refer to them as in the trial Court as indicated above.
(3.)The prosecution case is that in Village Vekanuru, Police Station Avanigadda, District Krishna, Vijayawada, there are two factions and parties on political lines. One group had been under the leadership of D-3 (deceased No. 3). They are all sympathisers of Congress-I party. Whereas the Telugu Desam Party is said to have been led in the village by one Tungala Veera Raghavaiah, who was murdered on 6-12-1989 in village Vekanuru. D-1 to D-5 in this case, and P.Ws. 1 to 6 and 19 have been prosecuted for the aforesaid crime and the case was pending in the Court of Sessions. Prior to the aforesaid incident, one Gudivaka Venkata Naga Basava Rao was murdered on 19-5-1989. He was related to A-6 (accused No. 6) and belonged to their party. A case was registered in connection with murder of Gudivaka Venkata Naga Basava Rao as Crime No. 42/1989 in Avanigadda Police Station against D-1 to D-3 and D-5 along with four others. This case was also committed to the Court of Sessions and pending at the time of incident.