KONDURU ADAM ALIAS RAMANAIAH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants, four in number, have been found guilty by the Additional Sessions Judge, Guntur, under section 147 of the Indian Penal Code and each sentenced to 6 months' rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) In the village of Katamrajukonduru, Guntur district, there were two factions, one consisting of the members of the prosecution party and the other of the accused. The causes of enmity between these two factions need not be detailed here. Suffice it to say that on the 19th of June, 1953, there was a fight between these two factions at about 1 P.M., in the course of which a man called Moshe of the faction of the accused was fatally injured in addition to the 1st accused who received an injury and on the prosecution side P.Ws. 2 and 5 to 10 were injured. No information either to the police or to the village munsif was given by either side till about 6 P.M., when accused 2 to 4 complained to the village munsif that P.W.1 and others had attacked and killed Moshe and caused injuries to the ist accused. The 13th accused also sent a telegram to the Sub-Inspector of Police at Mangalagiri about this occurrence. On receipt of this telegram and before the report of the village munsif reached the police station at Mangalagiri, the Sub-Inspector in charge of the station, P.W.19, went to the village at about 7-30 P.M. and started investigation into the murder of Moshe. The next morning at about 10 A.M. P.W. 2 gave a complaint to P.W.19 embodied in Exhibit P-2 that the 1st accused and two unidentified persons attacked him while he was returning from his fields. After the completion of the investigation, the police filed charge-sheet against both the sides. On the side of the accused, as many as 17 persons were included in the charge-sheet for offences under sections 147, 323, 324, 325 and 307, etc. Only 13 persons were committed to the Sessions to take their trial on thirteen counts for the abovementioned offences.

(3.) A number of witnesses were examined for the prosecution in support of its case that while the members of the prosecution party were sitting in a library engaged in the peaceful object of reading, the accused formed themselves into an unlawful assembly with the common object of attacking the prosecution party and in pursuance thereof attacked them with sticks. Thirteen persons were put forward as eye-witnesses to the occurrence and every one of them sought to support the prosecution case in all its details including the specific acts attributed to the various accused. The defence was one of denial.