Ashutosh Kumar, J.—Both the appeals have been taken up together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Mr. Umashankar Prasad, the learned senior advocate, has appeared for the appellant/ Achhelal Das Das in Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 680 of 2016.

3. No lawyer has appeared for the appellant/Ram Dayal Das in Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 783 of 2016. Hence, we deemed it necessary to appoint one amicus. We had requested Mr. Pratik Mishra, learned advocate to assist us to which he readily agreed and has rendered good assistance to us.

4. The State has been represented by Mr. Binod Bihari Singh, learned APP .

5. Both the appellants have been convicted under Sections 148, 302, 307, 323 and 324 with the aid of Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code and have been sentenced to undergo imprisonment till the remainder of their lives, to pay a fine of Rs. 50,000/- each and in default of payment of fine to further undergo S.I. for six months for the offence under Section 302/149 of the IPC; R.I. for seven years, fine of Rs. 10,000/- and in default of payment of fine, S.I. for three months for the offence under Section 307/149 of the IPC; S.I. for three years for the offence under Section 324/149 of the IPC, S.I. for one year for the offence under Section 323/149 of the IPC and; S.I. for two years for the offence under Section 148 of the Indian Penal Code. All the Sentences have been directed to run concurrently.

6. Two persons are said to have died in the occurrence, namely, Dasrath Das and his son Dinesh Das. The FIR has been lodged by Mahesh Das (PW11), one of the sons of the deceased /Dasrath Das. Apart from him, twelve other witnesses have been examined on behalf of the prosecution. Two persons on behalf of the defence have also been examined. Though, many persons were made accused in the FIR, but charge-sheet was submitted only against the appellants and with respect to other accused persons, the investigation was kept pending.

7. Mahesh Das (PW11) has alleged in the F.I.R. lodged on 01.09.2013 in the emergency ward of Sadar Hospital at Sitamarhi that his father /Dasrath Das was being abused by one Bikau Das at about 07:00 PM. His father went up to him and forbade him from abusing. All the accused persons including the two appellants, variously armed with farsa, bhala, knife, country made pistol and other sharp instruments then attacked him and kept on assaulting him continuously for about ten minutes, as a result of which, he was seriously injured. On hulla, Mahesh Das (PW11) along with his elder brother Naresh Das (PW8) and his younger brother Dinesh Das (since deceased) along with Umesh Das (PW3) came for his rescue. All of such persons including PW11 were also assaulted. Appellant/Achhelal Das hit Dinesh Das (deceased) in his scrotum by means of bhala. Another accused person is said to have assaulted him with a knife on his chest. He and Umesh Das (PW3) were assaulted by Guddu Das, as a result of which both of them got injured. Naresh Das (PW8) was also assaulted by co-accused Rameshwar Das by means of lathi, as a result of which he also became seriously injured. The informant (PW11) is also said to have been injured by a bhala on his chest which attack has been attributed to co-accused Bhajan Das.

8. Dasrath Das died at the spot and three of his sons including PW11 were injured. No sooner the people of village arrived, the accused persons ran away. With the help of villagers, the deceased, Dinesh Das (till that time was alive) and PWs 3 and 11 were taken to Sadar Hospital, Sitamarhi for treatment. Finding the condition of Dinesh Das to be very serious, he was referred to S.K.M.C.H., Muzaffarpur. PW11 and his younger brother Umesh Das (PW3) were treated at the Sadar Hospital, Sitamarhi.

9. The deceased was declared dead and efforts were afoot at the time of lodging of the F.I.R for sending his dead body for postmortem. The cause of the occurrence as narrated in the FIR is that Rajdeo Das (brother of accused Bhajan Das), who stays in