TMI Blog2002 (4) TMI 939X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... appeals are that on 23rd July, 1994 at about 2.00 a.m. the appellants accompanied by 300-400 persons, armed with deadly weapons like guns, attacked the house of Ganesh Singh in Village Amarpur. Bholi Singh was shot dead and Nawlesh Singh, Shiv Narain Singh, Kedar Singh, Sanjay Singh and Ajay Kumar were burnt alive inside the room where they were hiding. According to the First Information Report, the informant, namely, Ganesh Singh (PW5) along with other members of the family had slept on the upper floor of his house in open. At about 1.30 a.m. in the night there was some drizzling whereupon female members of the family came down to the ground floor of the house and male members moved inside three separate rooms on the southern side of the upper floor of the house. In the western room facing north Nawlesh Singh, Sanjay Singh, Ajay Kumar, Kedar Singh, Shiv Narain Singh and Bholi Singh went to sleep. The informant (PW5) himself occupied the middle room and in the room on the eastern side his nephew Dhanju Kumar (PW1) slept. After about half an hour, the informant heard sounds of firing from northern side of the roof of his house and he got up. He heard one person saying that Nawlesh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Kumar Gauta (A-11) was commuted from death sentence to imprisonment for life. Not satisfied even with the judgment of the High Court, the present appeals have been filed by the convicted accused persons. During the pendency of the Criminal Appeal No.1161 of 1999, one of the appellants, namely, Nawal Kishore Gautam (A-3) has died. So far as the appeal regarding Nawal Kishore Gautam is concerned, the same has thus abated. We are not inclined to re-examine the whole of the prosecution case for finding out as to whether occurrence had taken place in which six people were killed by the appellants in the manner alleged by the prosecution. We find no reason to disbelieve any of the eye-witnesses, namely, Dhananjay Kumar (PW1), Neelam Devi (PW2), Narendra Singh (PW3), Balwanti Div (PW4) and Ganesh Singh (PW5). The trail court as well as the High Court have, after critical examination of their statements, rightly concluded that they were the truthful witnesses and that all the appellants in these appeals were present at the time of occurrence. Merely because the witnesses happened to be the relations of the deceased is not a ground to reject their testimony. Under the circumstances of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s not require prior concert and a common meeting of minds before the attack. An unlawful object can develop after the accused assembled. The existence of the common object of the unlawful assembly has to be ascertained in the facts and circumstances of each case. It is true that the mere presence of the accused is not sufficient to hold them guilty for the sharing of common object as the prosecution has to further established that they were not mere by-standers but in fact were sharing the common object. When a concerted attack is made by a large number of persons, it is often difficult to determine the actual part played by each of the accused but on that account for an offence committed by a member of the unlawful assembly in the prosecution of the common object or for an offence which was known to be likely to be committed in prosecution of the common object, persons proved to be members cannot escape the consequences arising from the doing of that act which amounts to an offence. There may not be a common object in a sudden fight but in a planned attack on the victim, the presence of the common object amongst the persons forming the unlawful assembly can be inferred. It is s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ution of the alleged initial common object murders were likely to be committed. The knowledge of the consequential action in furtherance of the initial common object is sufficient to attract the applicability of Section 149 for holding the members of the unlawful assembly guilty for the commission of the offence by any member of such assembly. In this case the appellants, along with others, have been proved to have formed unlawful assembly, the common object of which was to commit murder and arson and in prosecution of the said common object they raided the house of the informant armed with guns and committed offence. The courts below have, therefore, rightly held that the accused persons formed an unlawful assembly, the common object of which was to commit murder of the informant and his family members and in prosecution of the said common object six persons were killed. The appellants were also proved to have hired the services of some extremists for the purposes of eliminating the family of the complainant. The reliance of the learned defence counsel on the judgment of this Court in Mukteshwar Rai Ors. vs. State of Bihar [AIR 1992 SC 483] is misplaced inasmuch as in that ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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