JUDGMENT :-

Dipak Misra, J.

The present appeal has been preferred by original accused Nos. 2 and 3 assailing the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Appeal No. 790 of 1989 whereby the High Court has confirmed the conviction and sentence passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Raigad, Alibag in Sessions Case No. 113 of 1988 for offences punishable under Sections 302, 147, 148, 149 and 452 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short “the I.P.C.”) and sentenced the appellants to suffer life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- each, in default, to suffer simple imprisonment for six months.

2. Filtering the unnecessary details, the prosecution case is that on 19.2.1988, PW-1, Chandrakant Phunde, the informant, who is the owner of a rickshaw bearing No. MCT858, while going from Somatane to Panvel for his business, met PW-2, Janardan Bhonkar, who hired his rickshaw for Panvel. On the way, they met the deceased Shriram @ Bhau Harishchandra Patil who wanted to go in the rickshaw and with the consent of Janardan, the three of them proceeded towards Panvel. The deceased, Bhau Harishchandra Patil, went to Gemini Tailors to pick up his stitched clothes at Palaspe Phata and thereafter they stopped near Milan Hotel to have some snacks. As the prosecution story proceeds, when they were inside the hotel, 10 to 15 people entered inside being armed with swords, iron bars and sticks. As alleged, Lahu Kamlakar Patil, the appellant No. 1, had an iron bar and appellant No. 2, Bali Ram, had a sword. Bali Ram and Lahu assaulted the deceased on his head with their respective weapons and the other accused persons also assaulted him. Janardan tried to resist and got hit on his right hand finger due to the blow inflicted by the sword. As there was commotion in the hotel, people ran hither and thither, and PW-2, Janardan, also took the escape route. After the assault, the accused persons ran away and Bhau was left lying there in the hotel in a pool of blood.

3. As the facts are further unfurled, Chandrakant Phunde went to the police station, lodged an F.I.R. and handed over the stitched clothes of the deceased which were in the rickshaw to the police. On the basis of the F.I.R., a case under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302 and 452 of the I.P.C. was registered and the criminal law was set in motion. In the course of investigation, the investigating agency got the autopsy conduted, seized the weapons, prepared the `panchnama’, examined the witnesses under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short “the Code”) and arrested six accused persons including the present appellants. After completing the investigation, the investigating agency placed the charge-sheet before the competent Court who, in turn, committed the matter to the Court of Session and, eventually, it was tried by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Raigad Alibag.

4. The accused persons abjured their guilt and pleaded false implication and, hence, faced trial.

5. In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined nine witnesses; PW-1, Chandrakant Phunde, the informant, PW-2, Janardan Bhonkar, who was an eyewitness to the occurrence, PW-3, Shantaram Jadhav, from whom the accused persons had made enquires relating to the whereabouts of the deceased, PW-4, Baburao Patil, father of the deceased, PW-5, Prakash Patil, a post-occurrence witness who had reached Hotel Milan to find that Bhau was lying in a pool of blood, PW-6, the Inspector who had registered the complaint of PW-1, PW-7, Dyaneshwar Patil, a panch witness who has proven the blood-stained clothes and the iron bar, PW-8, Eknath Kamble, and PW-9, Shrirang Wahulkar, the two other panch witnesses who have been declared hostile.

6. The defence chose not to adduce any evidence.

7. The learned trial Judge, after scrutiny of the evidence, found that the prosecution had been able to prove the case against the present appellants and, according