A.V. Nirgude, J.

1. Both these appeals can be decided by this common judgment. Criminal Appeal No.363 of 2010 is filed by original accused Nos.1 to 11 and 16 of Sessions Case No. 1 of 2008 and Criminal Appeal No.391 of 2010 is filed by original accused No.13 of same case.

2. The appellants were convicted for offences punishable under sections 143, 147, 148, 302, 307, 323, 324, 325 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. They were sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/-with a default clause for offence punishable under section 302 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. They were also sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six years and to pay a fine of Rs.500/-each with a default clause for the offence punishable under section 307 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. They were further sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three years for offence punishable under section 148 of the Indian Penal Code, but they were not separately sentenced for offences punishable under sections 143, 323, 324, 325 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code.

3. In addition to this, original accused Nos.6 Popat & accused No.7 Rambhau (appellant Nos. 6 & 7 in Criminal Appeal No.391 of 2010) are also convicted for the offence punishable under section 4 read with section 25 of the Arms Act and were sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year.

4. There were originally 16 accused in the Sessions Case, out of which accused No.14 died during the pendency of the Trial and the case against him got abated. Accused No.15 was separately charge-sheeted being a juvenile offender and was not therefore before the Sessions Court. Original accused No.12 was acquitted.

5. The case of the prosecution was as under:-

For the sake of convenience, we are referring the appellants by their original designation in the Trial Court.

Before October, 2007, accused formed a political group for the purpose of election of Grampanchayat against a political group headed by one Ashok Jagtap in village Nevasa, Dist. Ahmednagar,

On 29th October, 2007, at about 9.15 p.m. first informant P.W.1-Narayan and his friends were standing in front of Pavan Ganpati Temple of village Nevasa. Suddenly a mob consisting of the accused and others arrived there armed with weapons like swords, guptis, sticks etc. and assaulted first informant P.W.3-Kailas and others. In the melee, Narayan and other prosecution witnesses sustained injuries; whereas two of his friends, Dnyaneshwar and Vilas were killed. Soon after the incident P.W.1Narayan lodged his first information report before Police of Tophkhana Police Station, Ahmednagar. The offence was registered formally there but was sent for investigation to Nevasa Police Station in whose local limits the alleged incident took place. It was registered as Crime No.245 of0 2007.

During the investigation, accused were arrested and in due course of time, the chargesheet was sent against them. After committal of the case to the Court of Sessions, the trial took place prior to 30th October, 2010 and as noted above, accused (appellants) were ultimately convicted and sentenced.

6. During the pendency of these appeals, accused No.3-Ishwar, accused No. 10-Baba, accused No.11-Sadashiv, accused No.13-Sunil & accused No.16-Kishan were released on bail. Rest of the accused are in custody.

7. Prosecution examined 29 witnesses. The case, however, depends mainly on the depositions of eye witnesses viz. P.W. Nos.1 to 4. We would, therefore, first give gist of their depositions.

8. P.W.1 Narayan is the informant and also an injured. He deposed that on 29th October, 2007, at about 9 to 9.15 p.m., he had gone to Pawan Ganpati Temple. He was accompanied by his friends Dnyaneshwar(deceased), Vilas(deceased), Kailas(P.W.3), Raju(P.W.2) & Ganesh (P.W.4). At that time 10-15 persons came there. They were armed with swords, sticks, guptis and they immediately started attacking him and his f