Vipul M. Pancholi, J.—The present appeal, filed under Sections 374(2) and 389(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Code’), arises out of the judgment of conviction dated 14.11.2017 and the order of sentence dated 22.11.2017 passed by learned Vth Additional Sessions Judge, West Champaran, in S.T. No.444 of 2012, arising out of Nautan (Jagdishpur) P.S. Case No.36 of 2012, whereby and whereunder the appellants have been convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 302/34 and 201/34 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as ‘IPC’) and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs. 20,000/- each for the offence under Section 302/34 of IPC, rigorous imprisonment for five years and a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each for the offence under Section 201/34 of IPC. In default of payment of fine, they have been ordered to undergo six months rigorous imprisonment each. Both the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently and period spent under trial will be counted under sentences.

2. The prosecution story, in brief, is as under:

2.1. The prosecution case is based on the fardbeyan of the informant Nagina Ram, recorded by the Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police of Jagdishpur Police Station on 12.02.2012, at about 21.10 hours, that a dispute with regard to 4 bigha 2 katha and 11 dhur was going on for last 12 years between his grandfather and his co-villager Ayodhya Thakur and a title suit was pending before the Sub-Judge in that connection. With regard to the said dispute a scuffle took place between the two parties on 01.02.2012 for which on 12.02.2012 a Panchayati was held by the local panches in presence of Mukhiya and Sarpanch and the dispute was resolved. In the same evening, when his brother Sitaram (deceased) was returning back from market, a distress call was received at around 7.30 PM on the mobile phone at his house from the mobile phone of Sitaram in which he told in waggling voice that because of the land dispute he is being killed whereafter the call got disconnected and when they called back, the mobile was found switched off. Thereafter, they ran towards the market and on the way they met Shivram and they asked him if he had seen Sitaram Ram who had gone to the market with him. On this he said that he has not seen him and that the deceased had not gone to the market with him. Thereafter, they moved forward and when reached a little further they saw blood streak on the way leading towards Jamunia graveyard. The blood mark was leading towards the river. When they followed it, they saw the beheaded body of the deceased lying in mud on the bank of the Dhanauti river and his head was missing. The body was identified to be that of the deceased by his clothes and the old wound mark on the right leg. Due to the land dispute, Baliram Thakur, Shambhu Thakur, Indrasan Thakur, Bharat Thakur, Harinder Thakur, Ayodhya Thakur, Munni Lal Thakur, Manoj Thakur, Ashok Thakur, Om Prakash Thakur, Mahindra Ram, Shiv Ram, Pramod Yadav, all from Jamunia Dakshin Tola, Kishuni Mahato, Chandradev Prasad, and Feku Thakur, Kodai Mahato, all of Jamunia Dakshin Tola, Police Station Jagdishpur, District West Champaran always threatened to kill them and that day, when the deceased was returning home from Jagdishpur market, these people attacked him on the way and severed his head from the body with a sharp weapon and thereby killed him and threw the body into the river. The informant has further stated in his fard-beyan that he is of the firm view that the above people, in collusion with one another, have killed the deceased by severing his head after surrounding him on the way.

2.2. After recording of the fard-beyan of the informant, formal FIR came to be registered before Jagdishpur Police Station, bearing Nautan (Jagdishpur) P.S. Case No. 36 of 2012 for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 149, 302, 201/120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(2)(v)(vi) of the Sched