- (1.) This appeal under Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970 read with Section 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is directed against the judgment and order dated December 31, 1992, rendered by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 256 of 1991 whereby it reversed the order of acquittal recorded in favour of the seven appellants herein by the Sessions Judge, Ongole in respect of charges under Sections 148 and 302/149 IPC and convicted them thereunder. The gravamen of the charges was that on February 26, 1988 at or about 6.30 p.m. the appellants (who were arrayed as A-1, A-2 and A-4 to A-8 respectively in the trial Court and hereinafter will be so referred to) along with A-3 (who died during the pendency of the trial), formed an unlawful assembly in the office of the Mandal Revenue Officer, Peda Cherlopalli ('P.C. Palli' for short) village armed with deadly weapons with the common object of committing the murder of Nalluri Thirupathaiah of village Marella and in furtherance of that common object did commit his murder. The charges were based on the following prosecution case : 2(a) A-1 to A-5, A-6 and A-7 and A-8 were residents of villages Marella, Peda Alavalapadu and Gudevaripalem respectively. A-1 was the President of Telugu Desam party of P.C. Palli Mandalam and A-2 to A-8 were his friends and associates. The deceased, Tirupathayya (P.W. 1) and Brahmayya (P.W. 2) were residents of Marella Village whereas Gangayya (P.W. 3) was a resident of Pothavaram village. Both these villages were within the jurisdiction of P.C. Palli Mandalam. Suryanarayan Rao (P.W. 4) was the Mandal Revenue Officer of P.C. Palli Mandalam at the material time. (b) Since 1984, two rival political groups were functioning in Marella village, one led by A-1 and the other by the deceased; and a number of criminal cases instituted by the groups against each other were pending. In February 1987, elections were held there for the Mandal Praja Parishad in which wife of A-1 was elected the President of the Parishad while the deceased was elected as the President of 'Single Window Society' of P.C. Palli Mandalam. (c) In the following year, i.e. 1988, February 27, was fixed as the date for filing nomination papers for the panchayat election. Some of the candidates for such election were to file, along with their nomination papers, extracts of voters' list and their caste certificates. As such, on February 26, 1988 a number of people came to the office of P.W. 4 to obtain those documents. One of them was A-1, who approached P.W. 4 for caste certificates and extracts of voters' list for his party members. Following him came the deceased, P.W. 1, P.W. 2 and P.W. 3 at or about 6 P.M. with a similar request. While they were sitting in the office of P.W. 4, A-1, who had left his (P.W. 4's) office in the meantime, came back and requested P.W. 4 to visit Pothavaram village to consider the inclusion of about 40 persons, who were his followers, as voters. The deceased however insisted that P.W. 4 could not leave the office without issuing the voters' lists and caste certificates asked for by him. A-1 then left the office saying he would come back within half-an-hour and asked P.W. 4 to complete his job in the meantime. (d) Sometime later (at or about 6-30 P.M.) the seven appellants along with A-3 rushed into the office of P.W. 4 armed with deadly weapons and started beating the deceased. While A-1 beat him with an axe on his neck, A-2 beat him with a similar weapon on his right forearm and head. Thereafter the others stabbed the deceased indiscriminately with knives resulting in his instantaneous death. Then they fled away in a jeep and a car. (e) On the following morning P.W. 1 went to Kanigiri Police Station at or about 8.30 A.M. and submitted a written report of the incident (Ex. P-1) to S. I. Sankara Reddy (P.W. 10). On that report P.W. 10 registered a case (Crime No. 26/88) and sent copies of the report to all concerned. On receipt of a copy of the report Srihari Rao, Inspector of Police, Kanigiri (P.W. 11) left for Kanigiri at 9 A.M. He visited the scene of offence, prepared observation report (Ex. P-2) in the presence of Kesavarao (P.W. 6) and other mediators, prepared rough sketch of the scene of offence (Ex. P. 15) and seized some articles (M.O. 4 to 10) under a seizure list (Ex. P-2). P.W. 11 also conducted inquest over the dead body of the deceased in presence of P.Ws. 1, 2 and 3 and others and then sent the corpse for post-mortem examination. (f) Dr. Rammohana Reddy (P.W. 7) Civil Assistant Surgeon, Government Hospital, Kanigiri, conducted the post-mortem examination on February 28, 1988 and found 45 injuries on the person of the deceased including 40 incised wounds. He issued a post-mortem certificate (Ex. P-9) opining that the deceased died due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of the injuries about 36 hours prior to the post-mortem examination. (g) In course of investigation P.W. 11 seized a jeep bearing No. AAN-6152 on February 29, 1988 from the garage of one S. Prasad Rao. He also seized a car bearing registration No. APN-7953 on the same day at 8.00 P.M. in the presence of G. Ramesh, driver of the said car. On March 7, 1988, P.W. 11 arrested A-8 and on March 31, 1988, A-2, A-4 to A-6. A-2, A-4 to A-6 made statements (Exs. P-4 to P-7 respectively) before P.W. 11 pursuant to which he seized two battle axes and two knives (M.Os. 11 to 14 respectively) under Panchanama (Ex. P-8) in the presence of P.W. 6 and another witness. After completion of investigation, successor of P.W. 11 filed the charge-sheet.
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(3.) The defence of the appellants was that they were innocent and were falsely implicated due to political rivalry. A-7 took a further defence of alibi and contended that at the material time he was working as Village Assistant in Chennupalli village, which was far off from the place of the incident.;