JUDGMENT :

ABHAY S. OKA, J.

FACTUAL ASPECTS

1. The appellants are the accused nos. 2, 3 and 5-Kishore, Bala and Banaras respectively. Five accused faced trial for the offences punishable under Section 148 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short ‘the IPC’) Section 460 read with Section 149 of the IPC and Section 302 read with Section 149 of the IPC. All the five accused were convicted. For the offences punishable under Section 148 of the IPC, they were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for two years. For the second offence punishable under Section 460, read with Section 149 of the IPC, they were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years. For the offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 of the IPC, they were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment.

2. The accused preferred an appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. By the impugned judgment dated 27th April 2010, the High Court acquitted the accused no. 1-Raka and the accused no. 4-Lakhan but confirmed the conviction of the present appellants.

3. According to the prosecution case, on the intervening night of 3rd and 4th July 2003, PW-8 (Khushbir Singh) was sleeping with his pare