As per case facts, the appellants faced trial for murder after one of them, Prafulla Kumar Dehury, allegedly assaulted the deceased with an axe, causing a fatal head injury following ... an altercation. The trial court convicted three accused persons for murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The appellants appealed, arguing that the prosecution's account was exaggerated, a counter-case existed, and two co-accused were not initially named in the FIR. The question arose whether the accused were rightly convicted for murder under Section 302 IPC, especially given the evidence of a mutual quarrel and injuries sustained by the accused. Finally, the Court concluded that the incident was not premeditated but rather arose from a sudden quarrel and mutual assault, thereby qualifying as culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Exception 4 of Section 300 IPC. The convictions of the co-accused, Pratap and Pankaj, were set aside due to improvements in the prosecution's case. Prafulla was instead convicted under Section 304 Part I IPC and sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, with the co-accused being acquitted and their bail bonds discharged, acknowledging the incident's age and the mutual nature of the conflict.