JUDGMENT

THAKKAR, J.:—Whether the courts below were right in convicting the appellants under Section 120B of I. P. C. for being parties to a criminal conspiracy to fraudulently deprive an illiterate woman of her agricultural lands by deceiving her into affixing her thumb mark on a document under a misrepresentation and for offences under various other provisions is the problem posed before this Court in these three allied appeals by special leave.

2. The prosecution culminating in these appeals was initiated by a F. I. R., instituted on January 15, 1969 on an allegation that a fraud had been practised in respect of a sale deed purporting to have been executed by one Smt. Ghogari for a consideration of Rs. 30,000/- on November 18, 1968 in respect of about 36 kilas of land situated in village Mehrana in Haryana. The thumb impression of Smt. Ghogari was obtained under the misrepresentation that she was affixing her thumb impression on a complaint to be lodged with the police in regard to the unlawful entry made by one Lacchi and others on her land without any legal right or authority. These offences were said to have been committed in pursuance of a conspiracy hatched by P. W. 5, Bhima