JUDGMENT :

By The Court : Per Mehta, J.

1. The appellants herein have been convicted and sentenced as below vide judgment dated 01.03.2017 passed by learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Kherwada, District Udaipur in Sessions Case No.22/2016:-

2. They have preferred the instant appeal under Section 374(2) Cr.P.C. for assailing the impugned judgment of conviction and the sentences awarded to them by the trial court.

3. Briefly stated the facts relevant and essential for disposal of the instant appeal are noted hereinbelow:-

Smt. Sharda (PW.1) lodged a written report (Ex.P/1) to the SHO Police Station Rishabhdeo, District Udaipur on 10.02.2014 alleging inter alia that her husband Ramesh Meena used to work at marble mines. Further it was stated that on 08.02.2014 at about 8:30 PM, she along with her father-in-law Megha, mother-in-law Smt. Champa and brother-in-law Babulal Meena were present at their house. Suddenly they heard cries of her husband Ramesh Meena from towards the bridge located at a little distance from their house upon which all of them rushed towards that direction and saw that her husband was being assaulted by Dilip S/o Deeta, Prakash S/o Shri Nana, Hurma S/o Shri Lala, Rakesh S/o Shri Hurma, Smt. Kanta W/o Shri Hurma and Megha S/o Shri Dilip Meena, all residents of Bilakh Phala Siyar by lathis and axes. The informant got terrified and watched the incident from a little distance. Her father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law tried to intervene for saving Shri Ramesh on which, the assailants also assaulted with lathis and axes. On hearing the noise of commotion, people from neighborhood gathered around on which, the assailants ran away from the place of the incident. Her husband Ramesh received injury on the head because of the axe blow and various other injuries on other body parts due to which he was bleeding excessively and was badly injured. Her father-in-law Meghaji, mother-in-law Smt. Champa and brother-in-law Babu also received injuries in the assault. Her husband's condition was serious and thus, he along with her father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law were taken to Udaipur for providing treatment. This was the cause of delay in lodging the FIR. The said report was submitted by Smt. Sharda to the SHO Police Station Rishabhdeo on 10.02.2014 at 11:15 pm whereupon FIR No.59/2014 came to be registered for the offences punishable under Sections 143, 341, 323 and 307 IPC and investigation was commenced. It may be mentioned here that before being taken to Udaipur, the injured persons had been taken to Primary Health Centre, Rishabhdeo where Dr. Mukesh Kumar Bhagwat (PW.18) provided primary treatment and also prepared the injury reports of Smt. Champa (Ex.P/7), Megha (Ex.P/16), Babulal (Ex.P/17), and Ramesh (Ex.P/29) between 2:40 AM to 3:30 AM.

4. Ramesh expired on 14.02.2014 as a result of the injuries and his dead body was subjected to postmortem by Dr. Akhilesh Sharma (PW.19) posted as medical jurist at Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital, Udaipur. He carried out autopsy taking note of four injuries on the body of the deceased which are described hereinbelow:-

(1) Stitched wound 3 cm long on the left eyebrow with brownish scab.

(2) Stitched wound 5 cm long on middle part of the head with brownish scab.

(3) Bruise 5 cm x 1 cm on the abdomen.

(4) Swelling on the left elbow.

5. When the head injury was opened, extradural hematoma admeasuring 5 cm x 5 cm was seen between the skull bone and the brain