P. V. KAKADE, J.

( 1 ) SINCE all the three appeals, namely, criminal Appeal No. 98 of 1996, Criminal Appeal No. 93 of 1996 and Criminal Appeal No. 106 of 1996 arise out of the same set of facts and a common Judgment and Order dated 6th january, 1996 passed by the learned Additional Sessions judge, Thane, in Sessions Case No. 640 of 1994 are disposing them off by one judgment. The three appellants were convicted for the offence under section 302 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to imprisonment for life. They were further found guilty for the offence under section 201 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to suffer R. I. for two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- each, in default to suffer further R. I. for three months. They were further convicted for offence under section 392 read with 397 of the Indian Penal Code. They were sentenced to suffer r. I. for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- each, in default to suffer R. I. for one year under section 392 of the Indian Penal Code. They were separately sentenced to suffer R. I. for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- each, in default to suffer R. I. for one year for the offence under section 397 of the Indian Penal Code. Their substantive sentences were directed to run concurrently.

( 2 ) THE facts giving rise to the case, in brief, are thus :- Witness Subhash Salve, an Advocate by profession at nasik, owned a white coloured Ambassador car bearing No. MTJ- 5598. He was personally using the car and whenever it was not required for his use, he used to give it on hire through an agency named Kohinoor Travels located in Nasik. Witness raju Lakade was working as a driver of the said car and he used to take the car to Kohinoor Travels office in search of passengers. As usual on 9th July 1994, at about 8. 00 a. m. , witness raju Lakade went to Kohinoor Travels with the car in order to get some customers. At about 4. 00 p. m. on that day, one ajay (deceased in this case), who was also a driver, came in the office of Kohinoor Travels and told the manager that he had some customers who wanted to hire a car for a local trip of Nasik. The manager of the travelling agency contracted witness Raju Lakade and told him to take the customers in his car. Both Ajay and Raju Lakade left at about 6. 00 p. m. to pick up the customers. Accordingly, Raju Lakade and deceased Ajay took the car to CIDCO area, Nasik and as per the direction of Ajay the car was taken in front of a house. Deceased Ajay went inside the house and after about half an hour returned with four persons and all of them sat in the car. Three strangers sat in the rear seat while the remaining stranger sat in the front portion of the car along with witness Raju and deceased Ajay. As per the instructions of the customers the car was taken to the Indira Nagar Zopadpatti where it was stopped in front of one hut and all the customers and deceased Ajay went in the said hut and came after some time. Thereafter the car was again taken to CIDCO area from where the customers were picked up earlier. Then two of the customers went inside the house and brought bottles of soft drink as well as liquor and started their onward journey. One of the customers told witness Raju to take them to Jawhar, a nearby taluka town, to meet his relative. Accordingly, witness Raju took the car by Satpur Road and from there he took on trambak Road in order to go to Jawhar. After travelling for some distance the customers told him to stop the car near a hotel, made some purchases and thereafter told him to start the onward journey. When the car approached a bridge, the witness Raju was asked to stop the car and two of the customers got down and went under the bridge to answer the nature s call. They returned after a while and thereafter they proceeded further. At about 10. 30 p. m. they came to village Murchundi where witness Raju was asked to stop the car. They all got down from the car. Witness Raj