JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J.—

1. Leave granted.

2. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench, upholding the conviction of the appellants for offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 302 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’). By the impugned order two Criminal Appeals i.e. Criminal Appeal Nos. 314/2001 and 346/2001 were disposed of. Accused persons are Namdev (A-1), Santosh (A-2), Mangal (A-3), Subhash (A-4) and Sudam (A-6). The High Court by the impugned judgment dismissed the appeals.

3. Background facts in a nutshell are as follows:

The Complainant-Chandrakalabai widow of Bharat Kharat was a resident of Village Dharkanha. At the time of incident, she was residing with her husband Bharat Mukinda Kharat (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’) and two sons in the house situated in the village Dharkanha. It is the case of the prosecution that Shivcharan (PW6), son of the Complainant Chandrakala (PW2) as well as Taqnaji, son of Shakuntaiabai, the keep of deceased Bharat and Shakuntalabai were residing in the said house. On the day of incident, Shakuntala was not present as she h