JUDGMENT

S.B. Majmudar, J. -The appellants in this appeal, on grant of special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution of India, are original Accused Nos. 1 to 4 and 6 who were convicted for the offences under Sections 302, 307, 326, 324, 323 342, 452 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life by the Additional Sessions Judge, Surat. The said decision was upheld by the High Court in criminal appeal, which has resulted in the present apeal.

2. In all there were eight accused sent up for trial before the learned Sessions Judge. The Sessions Court, however, acquitted Accused Nos. 5, 7 and 8. Appeal against their acquittal came to be dismissed by the High Court by the very same judgment. Their acquittal has not been further challenged before us by the State of Gujarat. Hence, in this appeal, we are concerned with the conviction and sentence of only the present appellants i.e. Accused Nos. 1 to 4 and 6. For the sake of convenience in the later part of the judgment, we will refer to the appellants as Accused Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 while considering their respective roles in the incident in question.

Background Facts :

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