(1.) These appeals are filed by convicted accused wherein it is alleged that accused belong to Congress party and deceased No. 1-Kengegowda belonged to Janata Party and was the Pradhan of Karimuddenahalli. Deceased No. 2-Govindegowda was the younger brother of Kengegowda and he was President of the Milk Producers Co-operative Society and both were leaders of Janata Party. During the elections to the Mandal Panchayat in the year 1988, Kengegowda was elected to the Panchayat. Because of the said elections, disputes including criminal cases were pending in the Court. It is the prosecution story that on 2-5-1989 at about 5.30 p.m. deceased Kengegowda along with witnesses was sitting near Srikantachar's shop and was chitchatting. At a distance of 8-10 ft. other witnesses were also sitting and chitchatting. That is, in all deceased Kengegowda, PW 1 to PW 6, CW 5 and CW 8 were present at the scene of offence. At that time. A-1 to A-3 followed by another 20 to 25 accused came running to the direction from the house of A-12 holding choppers, clubs and stones etc. They all came in a group. As the aforesaid witnesses were about to get up, A-1 to A-3 assaulted deceased. Kengegowda by chopper, A-4 and A-5 assaulted him with clubs and other accused assaulted PW 1 to PW 6. They are all named and identified by the injured witnesses. It is also the say of the prosecution that after assaulting the deceased-Kengegowda and the witnesses, accused left and ran away from the place of offence towards the house of A-12. Thereafter, they got information from PW 9, son of the deceased Govindegowda, that his father was assaulted by the accused and that accused have chopped his legs and hands and he was lying near the High Court ground. This information was sent at Police Station, which is 18 kms. away from the village. It is the say of PW 29, Police Sub-Inspector that a telephone message was received at about 6.30 p.m. that some miscreants have assaulted Kengegowda and Govindegowda. On receipt of the said message, PW 29 along with police constable reached the village at 7.00 p.m. and found deceased Nos. 1 and 2 lying on different spots and they were alive at that time. He also found PWs 1 to 6 and 9, who were injured. After recording the statement of PW 1, he sent deceased and PW 3 to the hospital for treatment. Thereafter, PW 32 Inspector of Police came to the spot and recorded the statement of PWs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9 and after recording their statements they were sent to hospital for treatment. After recording the FIR, copy was sent to the Jurisdictional Magistrate, which reached him at 1.00 a.m. on 3-5-1999. Investigating Officer received the message on 3-5-1999 that the deceased have died. After completing the investigation, charge-sheet was submitted and after committal SC No. 8789 was tried by the Principal Sessions Judge, Mysore. The learned Principal Sessions Judge by his judgment and order dated 16th December, 1993 convicted the appellants accused Nos. 1 to 22 for the offences punishable under Sections 148, 324, 326, 341 and 302 read with Section 149 of IPC for murder of Kengegowda. He acquitted accused Nos. 23 to 29. For second incident of murder, the learned Principal Sessions Judge arrived at the conclusion that there is a very strong suspicion regarding participation of the accused in commission of murder of Govindegowda. But after appreciating the evidence, the Court held that the prosecution has failed to prove the second incident which occurred near High School on Gaddige road.
(2.) Against the said judgment and order, the convicted accused preferred Criminal Appeal No. 185/1994 and the State preferred Criminal Appeal No. 494/1994 against the acquittal of accused Nos. 23 to 29. The High Court by its judgment and order dated 24th July, 1996 dismissed both the appeals. That judgment and order is challenged in these appeals by the convicted accused.
(3.) The learned Principal Sessions Judge has appreciated the entire evidence in great detail. The High Court has also considered the evidence led by the prosecution. The Courts relied upon the evidence of injured witnesses PW 1 to PW 6 and the evidence of PW 10 to PW 12 who are eye-witnesses to convict the accused. Both the Courts analysed the evidence and arrived at the conclusion that all injured witnesses have specifically assigned roles to accused Nos. 1 to 5 in assaulting deceased Kengegowda. Injured witnesses also specifically deposed before the Court as to who assaulted them and other injured witnesses. The Court also considered the fact that evidence on record discloses that accused came in a group with deadly weapons, such as choppers, clubs etc., with a common object of assaulting the deceased, Kengegowda. In view of these concurrent findings of Courts below that there was an unlawful assembly of convicted accused with a common object to murder Kengegowda, who was of rival faction, it is not necessary for us to re-evaluate the evidence in its entirety. The evidence of the injured prosecution witnesses is corroborated by the medical evidence. Further, within a short span of one and a half-hour, FIR disclosing the names of the accused was lodged.