- (1.) This appeal by way of special leave arises out of the following facts :
(2.) On 6th March, 1995 Mandal elections were to be held in village Gadiparthivaripalem. Two of the candidates contesting the election were the deceased Soodidela Satyanarayana Reddy and Mandap Venkateswarlu, one of the accused (A.6).
(3.) At about 7.00 a.m. the deceased was standing along with PW. 1 his nephew, Soodidela Bapireddy, in front of the polling station, when all the accused, 20 in number, armed with lethal weapons such as axes, knives, sticks and stones attacked him. A.l Kotesswara caught hold of the deceased by his hair and gave two blows with a stone on his forehead and also stabbed him with a knife on his chest, A.2 Hanumantha Rao and A.3 Krishniah who were both armed with axes caused injuries on the back of the head of the deceased whereafter A.l again stabbed the deceased on his shoulder. On receipt of the injuries the deceased fell to the ground. The accident was witnessed by PW.l and in addition by PW.5- Pambha Soubhagyamma, a vegetable hawker. PW.l raised an alarm whereupon PW.6 and PW.7, Soodidela Subbamma and Soodidela Vijaylakshmi, rushed and found that the victim was bleeding from serious injuries. They attempted to move him towards his house but he passed away after a short while. The other accused A.4 to A.20 thereafter hurled stones on the witnesses including PW.l and PW.5 causing one simple injury with a stone on the back of PW.l. PW.l2 and PW.l6 an ASI and Head constable, who were on polling duty in the village, also rushed to the spot and saw the accused throwing stones at the opposite party. PW.l2 too identified the accused at that stage. Certain other witnesses later rushed to the place and found the deceased and PW.l lying there with injuries. Information was also sent to PW.22 the Sub-Inspector of Police, Chimakurthy, who rushed to the village and recorded the PW. 1 's statement and the First Information Report was registered on its basis at the police station at about 11.30 a.m. PW.23 the Inspector of Police, Ongole, Rural Circle, thereafter took up the investigation and visited the scene of occurrence and, amongst other items, seized the stone allegedly used by A. 1 in the attack on the deceased. He also dispatched the dead body for its postmortem examination. The post-mortem revealed the presence of eight injuries on the dead body. Several other doctors (PWs. 14, 15 & 19) also treated PW.l and PWs 2 to 4 and gave them wound certificates for the injuries they had allegedly suffered. On the completion of the investigation all the accused were charged under Sec. 148 of the IPC, A1 to A3 were charged under Sec. 302 of the IPC and the others under Sec. 302 read with 149, IPC and under Sec. 324 of the IPC. They all pleaded not guilty and were brought to trial.;