JUDGMENT

K.G. Balakrishnan, J.-The appellants in these two appeals were tried by the Designated Court, Patiala, for various offences such as punishable under Section 120-B, 302, 307, 394 IPC; Section 25 of the Arms Act; and Sections 3(1), 3(2) & 3(3) of the Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 [for short , the TADA Act ]. Along with these two appellants, one Balwinder Singh @ Fauji @ Pradhan was shown as the third accused, but he was absconding and was declared as a proclaimed offender, not available for trial. The appellants were found guilty by the Designated Court for the offences punishable under Section 120B read with Section 302 IPC and also under Section 3(3) of the TADA Act. Both of them were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 3,000/- with default sentence for six months, for the offence under Section 120-B read with Section 302 IPC. For the offence under Section 3(3) of the TADA Act, they were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a period of five years each and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/- with the default sentence of six months. The allegation against these appellants was that they entered into a conspiracy with Balwin