The occurrence waswitnessed by him and Prem Singh, who was standing at a distance of 5/7 paces.punishable under Sections 302 and 323 read with Section 34 of the Indian penalCode, 1860 (in short 'IPC').The factual position as projected by the prosecution is as follows:On 9.2.1993 at about 8.00 A.M.,Dev Singh was heading from the house to hisfields carrying a Sutli and Sua for the purpose of stitching the bags in which potatoeswere to be packed and he had hardly covered a distance of 4/5 yards when he foundaccused Balkar Singh, Chuhar Singh, Surinder Singh, Sher Singh (hereinafterreferred to as 'deceased') and injured Shamsher Singh standing near the tubewell ofChuhar Singh, where a drain existed and some water had stagnated by the roadside, because the height of the drain was more than the height of the road and somewater had tricked inside the house of Harbans Singh.Sher Singh and ShamsherSingh requested Balkar Singh and Chuhar Singh to deepen the drain so that water would not flow into their houses, to which Balkar Singh and Chuhar Singh did notagree and asked them to do themselves and thereafter the accused left the place.Deceased Sher Singh and Shamsher Singh started deepening the drain with thehelp of a kassi.After about one minute accused Balkar Singh carrying a Gandasiand the remaining two Chuhar Singh and Surender Singh armed with lathis camethere.Balkar Singh gave a gandasi blow to Sher Singh, which hit his left temple.Chuhar Singh gave a lathi blow which hit the left side of the temple and SurenderSingh gave a blow on the head of Sher Singh, who fell down and Shamsher Singhran towards his house.Thereafter there was free exchange of danda blows fromboth sides.Shamsher Singh was injured by all the three accused, who receivedinjuries on both shoulders, left side of the chest and head.Thereafter the accused left with their respective weapons and the injured Sher Singhand Shamsher Singh were removed in a tractor-trolley and got admitted in Civilhospital, Ladwa.The police came there and recorded statement,Ex. PD/2 which wasthumb-marked by him in token of its correctness.Injured Sher Singh and Shamsher Singh were got medico-legally examined.Sher Singh, who had been referred to P.G.I. Chandigarh,succumbed to the injurieson 13.2.1993, where upon Faqir Chand ASI (PW-12) conducted inquest proceedingsEx. PJ/3 and autopsy was conducted by Dr. B.Suri (PW-14).From the accused sideall the three suffered injuries and were medico-legally examined by PW-2 Dr.P.R.Pruthi, Medical Officer, CHC, Ladwa.After investigation, accused were challaned for the offence and a chargeunder Section 302 and 323 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code wasframed against the accused to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.In order to substantiate the accusations, prosecution examined 14 witnesses.The trial court found that the evidence is not sufficient to establish the guilt ofthe accused person and accordingly directed acquittal.The same was questioned inappeal before the High Court.The stand of the State before the High Court was thatthe injury was caused to Sher Singh and Shamsher Singh.PW9 was eye-witness who was present at the spot where the incident took place.It was stated thatthe accused persons also had sustained injuries and had taken similar plea in theirdefence.The accused persons placed reliance on the evidence of Dev Singh.In hisstatement made to the police he had stated about having reached the place ofoccurrence after hearing the cries for help.The High Court noticed that the trial courtwas justified in holding that Dev Singh and Prem Singh had reached the spot afterhearing the cries.The High Court also noticed that the possibility of injuries on thebody of the deceased and the accused could not be directly attributable to theaccused persons.The trial court and the High Court noticed that the occurrence tookplace in the course of free fight and there were more severe injuries caused on theperson of the accused person than the deceased and the so-called eye witness.Considering the nature of evidence, the trial Court and the High Court have come tohold that the prosecution version is not acceptable.In the circumstances, the HighCourt observed that the number of injuries make it clear that it was a case of free fight and it cannot be ascertained as to which party was the aggressor.Therefore,the view taken by the trial court was a possible view and the High Court did notinterfere.Learned counsel for the appellant-State vehemently argued that the analysismade by the trial court and the High Court and the conclusions arrived at are not inline with the evidence adduced including that of the eye-witness and injured eye-witness.

Cited provisions: Section 34 in The Indian Penal Code