JUDGMENT :

A.J. Dev, J.

The appellants were the accused persons before the Sessions Court, Surat, who came to be convicted by judgment and order dated 15th December, 2005 in Sessions Cases No.105 of 2004 and 12 of 2005. They came to be convicted for offences punishable under Section 302 read with Sections 143, 147, 148, 149 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five months. They were also convicted for offence punishable under Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act and were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a period of three months. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently and benefit of set off was also given.

2. As per the prosecution case, the incident occurred on 05.05.2004 at about 10-00 am on Lambe Hanuman Road in Varachha area of City of Surat near Ambika Jwellers Shop located near Tirupati Society. It is further the case of the prosecution that victim Rakesh @ Rako Bado was proceeding on his TVS Scooty from that place. At that point of time, appellant Nos.1, 5, 6,7 and 8 came on two motorcycles along with two other persons on 3rd motorcycle for the purpose of fulfilment of their unlawful object of an unlawful assembly constituted by them. The unlawful object was to cause death of Rakesh on account of a dispute with him in relation to an earlier murder of Sura Bharwad, within the jurisdiction of Kapodara Police Station, which was committed about four years prior to the date of present incident. All the persons were armed with deadly weapons. When the victim Rakesh reached near the place of incident, proceeding on his Scooty, the assailants came from behind on motorcycles and accused no.1 Dinesh Shamji inflicted a sword blow on Rakesh, as a result of which, Rakesh fell down from the Scooty. Since it was found that the victim may get up and run away, accused no.7 inflicted another blow on the victim. Victim Rakesh then started running and entered the shop of Ambika Jwellers to take a shelter. However, all the accused persons chased him and rushed into the shop. It is further the case of the prosecution that inside the shop, all the accused persons attacked the victim indiscriminately and caused multiple injuries all over the body with deadly weapons like sword, daggers, knives, etc. As a result of the injuries, the victim fell down on the ground. On the other hand, police was informed by somebody and the police came to the spot and found the dead body of victim Rakesh lying in a puddle of blood in the shop of Ambika Jwellers. FIR was given by Vipul, brother of the deceased, on the basis of which, offence was registered and investigated. The police having found sufficient material against the accused persons, filed charge-sheet in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Surat, who, in turn, committed the case to the Court of Sessions. There were two charge-sheets filed on account of late arrest of accused and therefore, two sessions cases were registered. However, both the sessions cases were clubbed together and tried together. Charge was framed against the appellants accused at Exh.27, to which, they pleaded not guilty and came to be tried.

2.1. The prosecution examined eye-witnesses to the incident and led other documentary and circumstantial evidence. The trial Court found that the prosecution was successful in establishing the charges against the accused persons and therefore, convicted all of them, as stated herein above. Hence, this appeal.

3. Learned Senior Advocate Mr. Shah appearing for the appellants submitted that the trial Court has erred in appreciating the evidence of prosecution witnesses. The evidence in form of deposition of eye-witnesses is unnatural and improbable.

3.1. Mr. Shah submitted that the motive attributed for the incident is stale and unnatural for the appellants accused to carry out such an assault. He submitted that it is alleged that the appellant Nos.1,