U.B. Saha, J.

1. All these three appeals preferred by the five Appellants namely, Shri Subal Deb, Chandan Shil, Chandan Saha, Sajal Das and Shri Bimal Sarkar have arisen from the judgment dated 29-3-2003 passed by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Court No. 3, West Tripura, Agartala in Sessions Trial No. 94 (W.T./A) of 2000. By the aforesaid judgment the learned trial Court convicted all the five Appellants under Section 366 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC') and sentenced the Appellant Shri Sajal Das to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/-, i/d to suffer S.I. for three years, the Appellants Subal Deb and Bimal Sarkar to undergo R.I. for five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- each, i/d to suffer S.I. for one year six months and the Appellants Chandan Shil and Chandal Saha to undergo R.I. for four years and to pay a fine of Rs. 3,000/- each, i/d to suffer S.I. for six months. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment of conviction and order of sentence, the Appellants preferred the aforesaid appeals respectively.

2. The prosecution case, in short, is that on 27-11-1999 while P.W. 4, Smt. Sankari Das alias Sankari Sarkar, aged 14/15 years, a student of Class VII of Charipara Higher Secondary School and minor daughter of Shri Anil Sarkar and Smt. Rekha Rani Das (P.W. 1) of vill-Panchamukh, Agartala was returning home after appearing hi the school examination along with P.W. 5, Miss Soma Chakraborty, P.W. 6. Shri Dipal Choudhury and another Rina Baul and reached near Ramthakur Ashram at Panchamukh, suddenly the Appellants with a Maruti Van coming from her back side stopped on-brake condition near them and accused Sajal Das and Bimal Sarkar come out of the vehicle. Accused-Sajal caught Sankari and gagged her mouth with a towel and accused-Bimal had a Bhujali in his hand and they forcibly dragged Sankari inside the vehicle and taken her away to some unknown destination. The face of Sankari was covered and, therefore, she could not ascertain as to which direction the vehicle was going. When the aforesaid incident was reported to the mother of Sankari, her mother, the informant (P.W. 1) Smt. Rakhi Rani Das rushed to home and lodged FIR with the O/C, Amtali Police Station alleging, inter alia, that her minor daughter had been kidnapped and accordingly, police registered a case. The informant and others searched her here and there, but they could not trace out Sankari upto the evening of that day. At about 6/7 p.m. on the same day, a police patrolling party found a Maruti Van No. TR-01-B-0373 at Birchandra Manu under Manpathar Police Outpost of Santirbazar Police Station passing towards Santirbazar direction with high speed and the police party stopped the vehicle and found the victim girl along with the accused-Appellants and when police enquired about them, Sankari narrated the incident how and in what manner she was forcibly kidnapped by the accused-Appellants, with a view to marry her by the accused-Appellant Sajal against her will. Hearing the incident from Sankari, police detained all the accused-Appellants along with the vehicle and took them to Manpathar Police Outpost and had handed over them to the O/C of the said outpost. On such production, P.W. 10 Inspector Sajal Sharma examined the victim, then Sankari again narrated the incident to him. Thereafter, P.W. 10 detained all the five accused persons in the police outpost and also kept the victim minor girl (P.W. 4) in a separate room of the said outpost and reported the incident to the O/C Amtali Police Station through SP (DIB), South Tripura. P.W. 10 also detained the vehicle and on search he found a Bhojali, (dagger type sharp instrument), printed saree, blouse, petticoat, bra, vermilion, couch bangle etc. and seized the same by preparing seizure list in presence of witnesses. O/C, Amtali P.S. on receipt of the information from the O/C, Manpathar O.P. reported the recovery of P.W. 4 to her moth