VINOD GOEL, J.

1. By these appeals, the appellants have challenged the impugned judgment dated 20.03.2004 passed by the court of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi, ('ASJ') in Session Case No.100/2000 (1/2003) vide FIR No.371/2000, Police Station Vasant Kunj, whereunder both of them were convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC') and order on sentence dated 29.03.2004, sentencing them to undergo life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- each and in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of two months.

2. As per the case of the prosecution, the deceased, Ram Singh @ Lallan Yadav, the appellant, Tirath Singh Yadav (A-1) and Chaman Yadav (A-2) were employed by Bhupinder Kumar Kalra (PW-1) at his dairy farms No.37-38 and 23-22. The son of the deceased, namely, Raju Yadav (PW-2) used to stay with his father at the dairy farm and was prone to waste a lot of water from the tubewell. A-1 and A-2 used to object to the deceased's son wasting the water. This caused an altercation one day which led the accused persons threatening the deceased that they would kill him if his son continued to cause such wastage.

3. As per the further case of the prosecution, on the intervening night of 21/22.06.2000, the deceased was murdered by A-1 and A-2 which was witnessed by two employees of the said dairy farm, Moti Lal (PW-16) and Sukhlal Yadav (PW-6). One Mr. Satish, driver of the Tata Tempo 407 (PW-5), who came at the spot to load buffalos on that night, found the deceased lying unconscious and informed the owner Raju Kalra. The dairy owner and his brother came there and informed the police pursuant to which a PCR van reached the spot. The deceased was taken to Safdarjung Hospital where he was declared 'brought dead'. The post-mortem on the body of the deceased was conducted on 23.06.2000. The post-mortem report states the cause of death as 'shock, head injury and other associated injuries ante-mortem in nature, caused by the application of blunt force from a blunt object collectively sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature'.

4. Both the accused persons were arrested on 23.06.2000. In their separate disclosure statements, both of them disclosed that they had murdered the deceased on the intervening night of 21/22.06.2000. A-1 disclosed that A-2 had physically incapacitated the deceased while sleeping and he himself had hit the deceased with the sabal due to which he became unconscious. He disclosed that he had concealed the sabal and could get the same recovered. He also disclosed that he could get his associate arrested. A-2 disclosed to the Investigating Officer (IO) that he had physically incapacitated the deceased while he was sleeping and A-1 had hit the deceased with a sabal made of iron as a result of which the deceased became unconscious. He also disclosed that A-1 has concealed sabal and he could get his associate (A-1) arrested. Both disclosure statements bear the signatures of two witnesses, PW-1 and Ct. Shiv Lal (PW-15). The Arrest Memo of A-1 and A-2 are Ex. PW 17/D and Ex. PW 17/C respectively. The Personal Search Memo of A-1 and A-2 are Ex. PW 15/E and Ex. PW 15/D respectively.

5. On 23.06.2000, vide Pointing Out-cum-Seizure Memo of the shirt (Ex. PW 1/D and Ex. PW 1/F), A-1 and A-2 got recovered their respective blood stained shirts which they were wearing at the time of commission of the crime, in the presence of PW-1 and PW-15. On the same day, the A-1 got recovered the sabal in the presence of PW-1 and PW-15 vide Seizure Memo marked as Ex. PW 1/E.

6. To bring home the guilt of the accused persons, the prosecution examined 17 witnesses in all. The learned ASJ recorded the statements of A-1 and A-2 separately under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ('Cr.PC') wherein they pleaded their innocence. Both of them chose