ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.

( 1 ) CHALLENGE in this appeal is to the judgment of the madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur upholding the conviction of the appellants for offence punishable under section 304 Part I read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal code, 1860 (in short the 'ipc') and the award of sentence of 7 years rigorous imprisonment as awarded by the trial Court.

( 2 ) PROSECUTION version in a nutshell is as follows: on the morning of 26th April, 1987 Ramesh (hereinafter referred to as the 'deceased') was returning from the house of ismail Khan. He was waylaid by the three accused persons who attacked him with knife, lathi and rod. Ramesh sustained numerous injuries on his person. Rakesh Kumar and Bittu alias Gurdeo Singh intervened. The incident was witnessed by his mother Khargi Bai (PW-1), maternal grandmother Tulasa bai (PW-22) and others. Ramesh was taken to the Police station where he lodged the first information report (Ex. P. 10)which was recorded by Head Constable Santosh Kumar (PW-20 ). Ramesh was immediately taken to the District Hospital at bina where Dr. Rajnish Shrivastava (PW-11) examined him. He found as many as 18 injuries on his body as per his report ex. P. 1