Judgment

Nanavati, J.-All these appeals arise out of a common judgment and order passed by the High Court of Bombay in Criminal Appeal No. 102 of 1995. Criminal Appeal No. 2 of 1997 is filed by 4 appellants who were Accused Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 in the trial Court. They had filed SLP (Crl.) No. 2969 of 1996 along with Navneet, Accused No. 1, but Nav­neet’s SLP was dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage. Criminal Appeal No. 425 of 1998 is filed by Taufiq who was Accused No. 4. Criminal Appeal No. 755 of 1998 is filed by Santosh who was Accused No. 5. Accused No. 1 was convicted under Section 366 IPC and the other accused were convicted under Section 366 read with Section 109 IPC. All the 7 accused had appealed to the High Court but their appeal was dismissed.

2. The prosecution case was that on 24.12.1991 at about 6.00 A.M. they abducted Archana with the object of getting her married with Accused No. 1. However, they were not successful in taking her away as on hearing her shouts, Dr. Mahajan (P.W. 13) came there, then followed the appellants in his car, overtook them and prevented them from taking her away. While all the appellants were running away they were followed by the persons