In Brief
A victim-appellant challenged the rejection of his application to summon four additional accused persons during a criminal trial for murder and unlawful assembly. The trial court and High Court had refused to summon them despite their specific naming in the FIR and in the victim's testimony. The Supreme Court held that Section 319 CrPC empowers courts to summon additional accused at any stage of trial, even based on examination-in-chief alone. Where persons are named in the FIR with their alleged roles and an injured eyewitness specifically identifies them during testimony, a prima facie case arises warranting their summons. Courts must not evaluate evidence on merits at this stage; that is for trial. For unlawful assembly charges, merely being part of the assembly suffices—individual overt acts are immaterial. The appeal was allowed and the private respondents were directed to be summoned to face trial.
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