Judgment :

1. This judgment will dispose of three appeals, being Criminal Appeal Nos. 974 of 2008, 975 of 2008 and 981 of 2011 @ SLP (Crl.) 4898 of 2008.

2. The facts are being taken from the paper book of Criminal Appeal No. 974 of 2008 entitled Gurmail Singh v. State of Punjab.

3. The facts leading to these appeals are as under:

3.1 Sohan Singh, P.W., the complainant, and his co-accused Nachhattar Singh and Parshotam Singh, are married to real sisters. Nindo is the daughter of Sher Singh, accused. Darshan Singh accused is the son of Sher Singh. A few days prior to the incident which happened on the 25th March, 1996 a message was received with regard to the proposed marriage of the son of Parshottam Singh accused, on which the accused had got together in his house to celebrate the occasion by taking liquor. At about 10:00 p.m. the accused came out in the street and raised a lalkara that they would teach the complainant party a lesson for having teased Nindo. At that time accused Gurnam Singh and Gurmail Singh were both armed with small knives (kirch) and Sher Singh, Nachhattar Singh, Parshottam Singh, Dharampal Singh and Avtar Singh were armed with lathis. Sohan Singh came out in