JUDGMENT

Thomas, J.—A young businessman of Calcutta was abducted and killed. The kingpin of the abductors and some of his henchmen were later nabbed and were tried for the offences The trial Court convicted them under Section 364 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, but not for murder, and sentenced them each to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court rejected the State appeal against the acquittal for murder and reduced the sentence to a short term imprisonment restricting it to the period which the convicted persons had already undergone. The State of West Bengal as well as the convicted persons filed these appeals against the said decision of the Calcutta High Court, the former mainly challenging the acquittal for murder charge and the latter challenging the very conviction entered against them.

2. Narration of Material facts of this case, in a brief manner is necessary before consi­dering the contentions raised. The victim of the offence was one Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal (‘Mahesh’ for short). He was doing some small business at Bow Bazar area (Calcutta). He was a bachelor aged 29 and he was residing with his sister Anushila Devi (PW