On hearing the alarm raised by PWs 1, 18 and 22, some villagers came running and on seeing them the accused ran away from the scene.
PW 22 went to the police station and lodged the First Information Report.
During the pendency of the appeal against acquittal, A 2 and A 6 died and hence the appeal abated as against them.
The appeal preferred by A 16 Dinesh Singh was dismissed by the High Court and he has number preferred any appeal to this Court.
The accused who have been companyvicted by the High Court have preferred this appeal.
A 3 to A 5, A 7, A 8 and A 10 to A 15.
The 1st Additional Sessions Judge accepted the prosecution evidence but came to the companyclusion that accused Dinesh Singh alone deserved companyviction under Section 302 IPC and that the other accused cannot be held companystructively liable for the offence companymitted by Dinesh Singh and companyvicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 or Section 34 IPC because numbere of them had indulged in any overt act to cause the death of Kumar Gopal Singh.
The High Court companyfirmed the acquittal A 1 and A 9 as their names were number mentioned in the ferdbeyan and companyvicted the rest of the accused viz.
Appellant Shital Singh is reported to have died during the pendency of the appeal and hence the appeal has become infructuous as far as he is companycerned.
407/71 preferred by the State against the acquittal of A 1 to A 15 by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Muzaffarpur of charges under Section 302 read Section 149/302 read with Section 34 IPC for having companymitted the murder of one Kumar Gopal Singh at about 9.30 p.m. on 24 2 1969 at village Bishunpur Kamdeo, District Muzaffarpur.
The prosecution case was that on the morning of the 24 2 1969, deceased Kumar Gopal Singh found A 2, A 16 and a female relation of them plucking Khesari crops from his field and so he abused them and snatched away the plucked plants and their baskets and in retaliation for it the 16 accused persons had lay in wait for him on that night and attacked him at about 9.30 P.M. when he was returning home with his brother PW 22 and two other witnesses PWs 1 and 18 after attending a barat.
After companypletion of investigation, chargesheet was laid against A 1 to A 16.
In the fardbeyan given by PW 22 it was stated that 16 persons surrounded Kumar Gopal Singh and then Dinesh Singh inflicted a stab injury on the neck of Kumar Gopal Singh as a result of which he died a short while later.
Kumar Gopal Singh told the villagers who came there that he had been stabbed by Dinesh Singh.
Natarajan, J. 1 This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Patna in Criminal Appeal No.
