The judgment establishes the principle of vicarious liability under Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, where an accused shares a common intention with the principal perpetrator of the crime.

PRATIBHA RANI, J.

1. These four appeals arise out of the judgment dated 24th August, 2015 and order on sentence dated 14th September, 2015 passed by the learned Trial Court in Sessions Case No.12/2014, pertaining to FIR No.429/2010, under Sections 302/394/34 IPC, PS Vijay Vihar, whereby the four appellants have been convicted for committing the offences punishable under Section 302/394/34 IPC and sentenced as under:-

(i) U/S 302/34 IPC to undergo life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each and in default of payment of fine, to undergo SI for 6 months.

(ii) U/S 394/34 IPC to undergo RI for 4 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,500/- each and in default of payment of fine, to undergo SI for 3 months.

2. The facts of the case as mentioned in the charge-sheet and noted by the learned Trial Court in the impugned judgment read as under:

(i) That on 18.12.2010 at about 9.40 pm, information was received in PS Vijay Vihar regarding robbery of valuable articles after giving knife injury near Rithala Bus stand in front of Talab. Said information was recorded vide DD no. 76B and same was entrusted to SI Satyavir Singh (PW25), who alongwith Ct.Kiran Pal (PW18) reached at the place of information. In the meantime, Inspector Sameer Kumar Jha (PW28) alongwith HC Mahavir Singh (PW27) also reached there on receipt of information about the incident. A lot of blood was found lying at Chabutra as well as n bench available in the Gumti of Talab Wala Park, Village Rithala. On enquiry, it was revealed that injured had been removed to BSA hospital. In the meantime, Ct.Kuldeep (PW12) and Ct.Yashpal (PW16) also reached there. After leaving HC Mahavir Singh and Ct.Yashpal at the scene of crime, Inspector Sameer Kumar Jha alongwith, ASI Satyavir Singh and Ct.Kiran Pal rushed to BSA hospital, where MLC of injured Ranjit was collected. After sometime, injured Ranjit expired. One public person namely Rajesh @ Pauda (PW-5) met them in the hospital and claimed himself to be an eye witness of the incident in question;

(ii) Inspector S.K. Jha recorded statement of complainant Rajesh @ Pauda, wherein he claimed that after attending their duties when he alongwith deceased were returning back to their respective houses, they purchased beer from Mall in front of Ambedkar Hospital and reched at Talab Wala Park, Rithala at about 9.15 pm. Both of them went inside the said park for attending the call of nature, when four boys in the age group of 20-25 years came there. Two of them caught hold of him while other two caught hold of deceased and they all started beating them with fist and kick blows. They robbed his purse containing his driving license, Voter I-Card, cash amount of Rs. 510/-, etc. and his mobile phone make Nokia 2310 having SIM no.9818342573. He further claimed that when Ranjit (since deceased) resisted the act of robbery of assailants, one of those boys gave knife blow on his thigh as well as on left side of his neck and robbed mobile phone and purse of Ranjit. Thereafter, all four of them fled away from there. Injured Ranjit became unconscious and fell down on Chabutra in the Gumti of said park. He informed his brother Main Pal Singh (PW1) by calling him from the nearby shop of Rahul. Accordingly, Main pal Singh also reached there and both of the with the help of some passerby shifted injured Ranjit to BSA hospital. He could identity all said four boys/offenders on being shown to him;

(iii) On the basis of said statement, Inspector S.K.Jha got registered FIR in question for offences punishable U/s 302/394/34 IPC through Ct.Kuldeep and investigation was entrusted to him;

(iv) During investigation, IO Inspector S.K.Jha seized relevant exhibits of deceased from the hospital and got postmortem of dead body conducted in SGM hospital. He also lifted relevant exhibits from scene of crime and also prepared site plan of the place of occurrence;

(v) During