V.M. Kanade, J.

1. Appellants are original accused Nos. 1 to 5. They are challenging the Judgment and Order dated 01/08/2006 passed by the 3rd Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Baramati, by which all the accused were convicted for the offences punishable under sections 143, 147 read with 149, 148, 323 read with 149 and 302 read with 149 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.1000/-each and in default, to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for six months and also convicted them on each count by awarding separate sentence. Appellants shall, hereinafter, for the sake of convenience, be referred to as accused by their original numbers.

2. Brief facts are as under:-

3. The incident in question took place on 07/02/2004 at about 10.00 P.M. P.W. 11 – Hanumant Fadatare, P.W. 12 – Kiran Prataprao Bhosale and P.W. 13 – Shrikant Bhosale had gone to their field at about 9.00 P.M. for the purpose of watering their crops. At that time, they heard some loud arguments and, therefore, they went in direction from which they heard this sound and noticed that the accused were damaging culverts of the canal with the help of crow bars. According to prosecution, P.W.11, P.W. 12 and P.W. 13 informed this fact to deceased and they alongwith the deceased again came back at the place where the said accused were trying to damage the said canal. Prosecution case is that the accused rushed towards the deceased and other witnesses and assaulted them with stones and crow bars and in the said assault the deceased Pandurang Fadatare succumbed to the injuries. The said witnesses P.W.11, P.W. 12 and P.W. 13 then took deceased on their motor-cycle to the hospital. He was, however, declared dead on arrival at the hospital. A complaint was lodged. The names of the accused were mentioned by the witnesses. Medical Officer Dr. Subhash Lamkhede (P.W.8) examined P.W.11 on the next morning and issued injury certificate. P.W. 8 also performed autopsy of the deceased and he gave an opinion that the death has taken place due to haemorrhagic shock due to multiple fracture of skull bones and death of vital organ like brain. Accused were charged for the offences punishable under sections 143, 147 read with section 149, sections 148, 323 read with section 149 and section 302 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. They pleaded not guilty to the said charge.

4. Prosecution, in all, examined 21 witnesses. Trial Court, after perusing the evidence which was on record was pleased to convict all the accused for the offences with which they were charged.

5. The learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants/accused has taken us through the judgment and order of the Trial Court as also the evidence adduced by the prosecution. He submitted that no reliance could be placed on the testimony of the said eye witnesses viz P.W.11, P.W. 12 and P.W.13. He submitted that from the call-log which was produced in the Court, it could be seen that the deceased was contacted by accused Nos. 1 and 2 and, as such, presence of the appellants/accused at the scene of offence was doubtful and it was not established by the prosecution. He then submitted that there was no special reason for P.W.12 and P.W. 13 to accompany the complainant on that day. He submitted that, it was not possible for the complainant to hear a loud voice of the quarrel which was going on between the accused from the spot. He then submitted that blood-stained clothes of P.W.11 and P.W.12 were seized after two months from the date of incident. He further submitted that there were no bleeding injuries on the complainant. He then submitted that the Medical Officer (P.W.8) has stated that the deceased was brought in four wheeler which falsifies the claim of P.W.12 and P.W.13 who have stated that they had brought the deceased to the hospital on motor-cycle. He further submitted that the Medical Officer has stated that he had examined the complainant and P