JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of the Division Bench of the Hon’ble High Court of Uttaranchal at Nainital upholding the conviction of four appellants who had filed Criminal Appeal no.1275 of 2001. One of the appellants Khushi Ram died during the pendency of the appeal. By the impugned judgment, the High Court upheld the conviction so far as other appellants Chaman, Vinod Kumar and Naresh are concerned. The first two are appellants in the present appeal. No appeal has been preferred by accused Naresh. Each of the accused was convicted for offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’) and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Appellant Vinod was additionally convicted for offence punishable under Section 323 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for six months.

2. Prosecution version in a nutshell is as follows:

On 09.07.1985, at about 5:00 P.M., Jaswant Singh (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’) was returning to his home, when he met Rani, daughter of Onkar Das and they started talking to each other. Appellant Chaman, brother of Rani, came from his house hurling abuses