JUDGMENT

T.S. Thakur, J. —

1. These appeals under Section 379 of the Cr.P.C. read with Section 2(a) of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970 arise out of a judgment and order dated 22nd September 2006 and 12th December 2006 passed by the High Court of Karnataka whereby State appeal No.715 of 2000 has been partly allowed and Crl. Appeal No. 705/2000 allowed, the appellants convicted under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with a fine of Rs.5,000/- each and in default of payment of the same to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. The facts giving rise to the filing of these appeals may be summarized as under:

2. Padavva one of the sisters of accused no. 1 to 4 was engaged to get married to the deceased-Ramesh brother of PW-1 Guralingappa. Soon after the engagement was over a loan of Rs.30,000/- was advanced to the accused for purchase of a commercial vehicle. Since the loan was not repaid by the accused, the vehicle was taken over and parked in front of the house of PW-1 Guralingappa. This led to some bitterness between the two families which took a turn for the worse when deceased-Ramesh refused to marry Pa