A.V. Nirgude, J.

Both these appeals arise from judgment and order in Sessions Case No.286 of 2010 delivered by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmednagar on 25.02.2013. The appellants in both the appeals were convicted for offence punishable under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5000/- each with default clause of three months' rigorous imprisonment. For the sake of convenience, the appellants would be referred to by their designation in the lower Court as accused Nos.1, 2 & 3.

2. Criminal Appeal No.140 of 2013 is filed by accused Nos.1 & 3, whereas Criminal appeal No.177 of 2013 is filed by accused No.2. All the three accused were charged for committing murder of Ravindra, who happened to be husband of accused No.1-Manisha. Accused Nos.2 and 3 are cousins of accused No.1.

3. The prosecution case in short is that Ravindra - the victim owned 19 acres land but the same was sold about one year prior to the incident with the help of the accused. The amount of consideration was kept in the names of the accused. Ravindra-the victim kept demanding the amount for his daily needs and there used to be quarrel between accused on one side and Ravindra on the other over such demand. Because of this dispute on 17th October, 2010, the accused went to the house of Ravindra by about 7 p.m., assaulted him with sticks and caused his death.

4. The prosecution depended on 12 witnesses, out of which P.W.4-Santosh Gadhve, P.W.5-Navnath Raskar, P.W.6- Rajendra Raskar and P.W.9-Kshitija Humbe are the eye witnesses. P.W.10-Dr.Vikas Somwanshi is the Medical Officer, who conducted post-mortem and his deposition has significance, which would be discussed later-on in the judgment.

5. P.W.1-Hirabai is mother of Ravindra, who lodged complaint of the incident on the same day at 11.30 p.m. P.W.1-Hirabai stated that victim Ravindra was her son and was staying in a house consisting of three rooms at Tambe Mala, which is a land admeasuring 5 acres. Ravindra was staying with his wife accused No.1-Manisha and their children. Accused No.3-Nitin is accused No.1-Manisha's brother and accused No.2-Sanjay is their cousin. Victim Ravindra was a naive person. Accused sold his land to one person from Pune and received a sum of Rs.19 lakhs. They did not give this amount to Ravindra, but kept is with them. Ravindra was demanding the amount from them. On account of this, frequent quarrel took place between Ravindra on one side and the accused on the other. On the day of incident, she went to village Mandavgan, where she received a phone call of one Rajiv Raskar (P.W.6), from which she learnt about the accused had killed her son Ravindra. She went to Ravindra's house. She found in the house chili powder scattered, four sticks and some household articles in broken condition. She also noticed injuries on Ravindra's person. Ravindra was dead. She then went to Shrigonda police station for lodging report. Her report was written down and was read over to her. In her deposition, it is also mentioned that Tambe Mala, where the incident took place is at about one mile distance from village Mandavgan. She admitted in her cross-examination that after the transaction of sale of 19 acres land, she had lodged complaint to police station against her son Ravindra and also against purchaser who resided at Pune alleging that the land was sold without her permission. She also admitted that the purchasers had filed Civil Suit for possession of the land in Civil Court.

6. P.W.4-Santosh stated that Ravindra's house was adjacent to his house. Ravindra and his wife (accused No.1) and their children were staying in his house in neighbourhood. He also indicated that he was aware that Ravindra had sold land for about Rs.19-20 lakhs and that the amount was kept with the accused. He was aware