The second incident was witnessed by PW 4 Bhimrao, PW 5 Deokabai and PW 6 Anandrao.
It is true that some of the prosecution witnesses have testified that during the eight years between the earlier incident and the present one, the relations between the two parties had improved and that they were on visiting terms as well.
P.C. The Trial Court also observed that the witnesses were closely related to the deceased and to each other and as there appeared to be numberplausible motive for the murders and the delay in the lodging of the FIR were other factors which cast a serious doubt on the prosecutions story.
The Court also found that the testimonies of PW 4 Bhimrao, PW 5 Deokabai and Anandrao PW 6 with respect to the assault and murder of Namdeo too were reliable and had to be accepted.
The present incident took place within four months of that release.
Namdeo, the deceased and his sons were prosecuted for an attempt to murder Sukhdeo, the father of accused 1 to 5 in the year 1981 and were sentenced to five years by the trial companyrt, but the sentence was reduced to three years by the High Court and the accused were released from jail in February 1989.
The statements of Dadarao PW 2, to whom Jaideo deceased had made a dying declaration and Wasudev PW 3 naming the accused as their assailants were also discarded, on the premise that there were many improvements vis vis their statements under Section 161 of the Cr.
On companymittal the Additional District Judge framed charges under Sections 147, 148 and 149 r w Section 302 of the IPC against the accused.
The facts are as under At about 4 p.m. on 11th June 1989 Babarao Kolhe, his brother Jaidev Kolhe and grandson Sanjay PW 1 residents of village Panaj, went to plough their fields, about one and a half kilometers away from the village.
The two injured were thereafter taken homeward and as the party entered the village.
He then recorded the statement of Dadarao on which a First Information Report under Section 302 r w Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered.
Dr. Jaiswal PW 7 clarified that these injuries companyld have been caused by the axes and sticks recovered from the accused.
Namdeo Kolhe thereupon called his sons Dadarao and Wasudeo and alongwith several other persons went in search and found Babarao and Jaidev lying seriously injured in the field of one Vishwanath Akotkar.
The accused also threatened Deokabai that they would kill her as well on which she made a hasty retreat to her home.
In the meantime, the bullock cart sans Babarao and Jaidev too returned to the residence in the village.
The Court also held that the graphic details of the injuries caused by each of the accused made his story improbable.
In the first incident Babarao and Jaideo were killed, an event which was witnessed by PW 1 Sanjay, the son and nephew of the two deceased, respectively.
This police officer reached Panaj at about 100 a.m. and on enquiry found that Babarao, Jaidev and Namdeo were dead.
The message was accordingly companyveyed by the Anjangaonsurji police to Akot police station on which PSI Thombre recorded the message in the Daily Diary and also informed Inspector Patil PW 14 about the incident.
The Trial Court in the companyrse of a somewhat laboured judgment held that the deposition of Sanjay PW 1, the solitary eye witness to the murders of Jaideo and Babarao, companyld number be believed as his companyduct belied his presence in as much that after reaching home he had hidden himself in the house of one Abgad and had number reported the matter to his neighbours.
The Trial Judge accordingly, by his Judgment dated 20th February 1991, acquitted the accused.
The Court also believed the statement of PW 2 Dadarao with respect to the dying declaration made by Jaideo.
Likewise, Babarao had ten injuries including four incised and six lacerated with four companypound fractures, two on the arms and two on the legs.
Namdeo and the others received information that the accused were searching for them as well so that they too companyld be killed.
1 to 5 and had been companyvicted and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years but on appeal in the High Court, the sentence had been reduced to three years whereafter the accused had been released from jail in February 1989.
Sanjay escaped from the spot and reached home and informed his grandfather Namdeo Kolhe about what had happened, giving details of the injuries caused by each of the accused.
The Police also started on the investigation and sent the dead bodies for the post mortem examinations.
The post mortem of Jaideo likewise revealed 14 injuries in all of which five were incised, four were abrasions and the remaining were lacerated with three companypound fractures two on the leg and one on the right hand.
Two lacerated and two incised injuries along with several fractures on the arms and legs were found on the dead body of Namdeo.
Wasudeo then went to Karla to send a message to the Police at Akot on phone, but he companyld number get the companynection on which the operator him to call the police at Anjangaonsurji Police Station.
Dadarao and Wasudeo thereupon left the cart and returned home by a circuitous route.
Bhimrao rushed back home and narrated the incident to his mother Shantabai and to his father.
It is the case of the prosecution that Jaidev made a dying declaration to Dadarao that the eight accused had beaten him and Babarao.
The accused were armed with axes and sticks capable of causing incised and lacerated injuries.
Namdeo then left for the house of the Police Patil accompanied by his grandson Bhimrao PW 4 and Deokabai PW 5 but he too was assaulted along the way by the accused.
As they were returning home in their bullock cart, they were waylaid by the eight accused, variously armed with axes and sticks who attacked Babarao and Jaidev.
The accused, who did number make an attempt to run away, were arrested from the village the very same day and on their disclosure statements, the weapons of offence as also bloodstained clothes were recovered.
HARJIT SINGH BEDI, J. This appeal is directed against the judgment of the Bombay High Court dated 24th April 2007 whereby the State appeal against acquittal against the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, Akola has been allowed and the accused companyvicted and sentenced for offences punishable under Section 302/149 of the IPC etc.
The High Court also observed that the finding of the Additional Sessions Judge that there was numberapparent motive for the murders was, on the face of it, unacceptable as it was the admitted position that in 1981, Namdeo deceased and his sons had been prosecuted for an attempt to murder Sukhdeo, father of accused number.
