JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J.—

1. Challenge in these appeals is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court directing acquittal of the respondents. Respondent Sanjay Vishwakarma was convicted for offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’) whereas the other two accused persons were tried and convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC.

2. Learned Additional Sessions Judge, Basti had convicted the respondents who preferred three separate appeals before the High Court. By the impugned judgment the High Court directed their acquittal.

3. Prosecution version in a nutshell is as follows:

On 21.11.1998 Radhey Shyam Pandey was at his house situated at Avas Vikas Colony District Basti and his son Ajay Kumar alias Pintu returned back home from the city and told him that a scuffle took place between him on one hand and Sanjay Vishwakarma, Atul Singh and Brij Kishore Singh alias Dimple on the other in front of A P N Degree College; and at that time he was accompanied by Vikas Singh and Sunil Kumar Verma and that his opponents were in search of him in order to kill him. Then Radhey Shyam Pand