Chakradhari Sharan Singh, J.—All these three criminal appeals arise out of same criminal trial i.e. Sessions Trial No. 326(A)/2016 (CIS No. 8006589/2016) before the learned Additional Sessions Judge-XIII, Patna in which the appellants were charged of commission of the offences punishable under Sections 489-B, 489-C read with Section 34 of the IPC and Section 16(1)(b) and Section 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAP Act’ in short).

2. By a judgment dated 22.10.2021, the trial court has recorded conviction of all these appellants for the offences punishable under Sections 489-B, 489-C of the IPC and Section 16(1)(b) of the UAP Act. They have, however, been acquitted of the charge of offence punishable under Section 17 of the UAP Act. From the judgment of conviction, it transpires that though the appellants, Ripun Sheikh in Cr. APP (DB) No. 404 of 2022 and Prabhat Kumar @ Prabhat Agarwal in Cr. APP (DB) No. 802 of 2021, were before the Court on the date when judgment was pronounced. The appellant Paras Nath Chaubey had absented himself. The trial court, after having recorded conviction of the appellants, placed the matter for awarding sentence against the appellan