JUDGMENT

R. BANUMATHI, J.

These appeals arise out of the common judgment passed by the High Court of Madras in Criminal Appeal Nos. 69, 1096 and 1097 of 2006 allowing the appeal preferred by the State thereby enhancing the sentence of imprisonment from ten years to imprisonment for life for the conviction under Section 396 IPC.

2. Briefly stated case of the prosecution is that on the intervening night of 13/14.11.2002 at about 01.30 a.m., the appellants accused Basheer (A1), Shajahan (A2) and Babu @ Nawab Sahib (A4) along with two other accused Raja Mohammad (A3) and Balu @ Balasubramanian (A5) with common intention to commit robbery in a Pawn Broking shop under the name of Peri owned by PW-1 Muthaiyah. In the course of committing robbery, Shajahan (A2) is alleged to have tightly held the legs of deceased Muthukrishnan who was sleeping inside the shop and Babu @ Nawab Sahib (A4) is alleged to have sat on his chest and constricted his neck and tied the jute rope around the neck of Muthukrishnan and strangled him to death. Other accused robbed jewellery about 4.788 kg. of gold and 5.595 kg. of silver total worth about Rs.12,00,000/-. On 13.11.2002 at about 05.30 a.m., Chellam-PW-4 empl