JUDGMENT :

Sunil B. Shukre, J.

All these appeals are being disposed of by this common judgment as they arise out of the same judgment and order, which have been assailed in all these appeals, they constituting the common cause for these appellants to feel aggrieved in this case.

2. The judgment and order under challenge have been rendered in Special Criminal MCOC No.7/2013 on 23/05/2016 by the Special Judge designated under MCOC Act and Additional Sessions Judge-5, Nagpur. By this judgment and order, the appellants numbering five in total have been found guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 302, 143, 147 and 148 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC' for short) and innocent of the offences punishable under Sections 3(1)(i) and 3(4) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act ('MCOC Act' for short) and also under Sections 4 and 25 of the Arms Act. For their such guilt, the Special Judge has awarded to these appellants, such punishments as imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.2,000/- with default sentence of one year for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 of IPC for each of the appellants, rigorous imprisonment for three months and fine of Rs.500/- with default sentence of one month for an offence under Section 143 for each of the appellants, rigorous imprisonment of six months and fine of Rs.750/- with default sentence of two months for an offence under Section 147 for each of the appellants and rigorous imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs.1000/- with default sentence of three months for an offence under Section 148 of IPC for each of the appellants. There was one more accused, who was tried for all these offences along with the appellants, original accused No.4-Narendra @ Naru Nandurkar, but he has been acquitted of all the offences with which he was charged in this case.

3. For the sake of convenience, we would now refer to these appellants by their nomenclature as accused and the order in which they were arrayed as accused in the charge-sheet. Appellant-Rohit Ramteke in Criminal Appeal No.432/2016 was the original accused No.1, appellant-Ketan Shambharkar in Criminal Appeal No.223/2016 was the original accused No.2, appellant Nos.1 & 2 Saurabh Adlak and Sumit @ Sandy Bhasme in Criminal Appeal No.228/2016 respectively were original accused Nos.3 & 6 and Appellant-Chandrashekhar @ Chandrya in Criminal Appeal No.238/2017 was original accused No.5.

4. It so happened that all the accused persons operating an organized crime syndicate in the vicinity of NDR Square Area, Banerjee Layout, Nagpur had cast their evil eye upon the house of one Shalu Gote, which was situated in the area of operation of the accused with a view to illegally grab the same. Accused No.1, in particular, had pressurized, on some occasions, Shalu Gote either to transfer her house in his name or pay him an amount of Rs.1,00,000/-, but Shalu Gote stubbornly refused to succumb to the pressure. Peeved over the obstinacy of Shalu Gote, the accused caused damage to her house and the incident was reported to Ajni Police Station in which deceased Santosh Sare, son-in-law of Shalu Gote, had taken a lead role. Since then, it appears that accused No.1 and all his associates in this crime had nurtured a grudge against the deceased. They found an opportunity to settle the score with the deceased in the night of 19/06/2013.

5. Incident, according to the charge framed against the accused persons, took place on 19.06.2013 at about 09:45 p.m. near NDR Square, Banerjee Layout, Nagpur. At that time, the deceased riding a motorcycle with his friend Saurabh Humne occupying pillion seat came to pass through the NDR Square. All the accused not wanting to squander the opportunity, obstructed the way of the motorcycle. The rider and the pillion rider both along with the motorcycle fell down on the road. Immediately thereafter, it is alleged, accused No.1 Rohit Meshram lifted, the deceased and then he started giving fist and ki