JUDGMENT :

PANKAJ BHANDARI, J.

1. Appellants-Ashok Chaudhary and Shankar Singh have preferred D.B. Criminal Appeal No. 1182/2016 and Raju and Mahendra have preferred D.B. Criminal Appeal No. 1119/2016 aggrieved by the judgment and sentence dated 27.09.2016 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 4, Ajmer, whereby the appellants have been convicted and sentenced as hereunder:

(i) For offence under Section 302/34 of Indian Penal Code (for short “IPC”) - life imprisonment with a fine of Rs.5,000/- each and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo 2 months simple imprisonment.

(ii) For offence under Section 323/34 IPC - 6 months simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs.500/- each and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo 1 month simple imprisonment.

(iii) For offence under Section 324/34 IPC - 1 year simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs.500/- each and in default of payment of fine, to further undergo 1 month simple imprisonment each.

2. Succinctly stated the facts of the case are that on 22.04.2011, Sualal (PW-2) along with his family members, namely, Heera, Devkaran and Mitthanlal lodged a written report (Exhibit-P/1) at Police Station Mangaliyawas, District Ajmer, wherein it was alleged that he is a resident of Village Liddi. There was a function of Jamna of Manju daughter of Ramdev, therefore, her in-laws Ashok, Shankar and 2-3 other family members came. Likewise on account of function of Muklawa of Ramdev’s other daughter-Sheela, her husband Shivraj and 4-5 other family members of Gaderi Village came and after taking food, they went to sleep at the roof of his house. It is stated in the report that on account of some hot arguments, they started quarreling. Ashok, Shankar and 4-5 of their family members started pelting stones on them. Ashok and Shankar also took belts from their waist and gave beating, upon which, he received injury on his head. Shankar and Ashok also asked him as to why did they speak between them. On hearing hue and cry, Chhotuji, Bhanwarlal, Jagdish, Sanwarlal and Surajkaran intervened. It is also stated that those, who quarreled, ran away.

3. On receipt of the said report, the police registered FIR bearing No. 68/2011 (Exhibit-P2) for offence under Sections 143, 341, 323 and 336 IPC. Sualal received 3 simple injuries by blunt weapon (Exhibit-P4); Heera received 1 sharp and 3 simple injuries (Exhibit-P5); Smt. Manju received 1 simple injury by blunt weapon (Exhibit-P50); Jagdish received 3 simple injuries by blunt weapon (Exhibit-P51); Devkaran received 3 simple injuries by blunt weapon (Exhibit-P49) and Mitthanlal received 5 simple injuries by blunt weapon (Exhibit-P11). Jagdish expired on 23.04.2011. As per the postmortem report dated 24.04.2011 (Exhibit-P31), cause of death was septicemic shock as a result of antemortem injury to intestine caused by blunt force. The case was, therefore, converted to Section 302 IPC. The police after completion of the investigation filed challan for the offence under Sections 323, 324, 336 & 302/34 IPC against the accused appellants. After hearing the arguments on charge, learned Trial Court framed charges for offence under Sections 323, 336, 324 and 302/34 IPC. The accused denied the charges and sought trial. As many as 26 witnesses were examined; 53 documents were exhibited and Article-1 to Article-3 were also exhibited on behalf of the prosecution. Explanation of the accused appellants were recorded under Section 313 Cr.P.C. In defence, statement of Kanaram (DW-1) was recorded and Exhibit-D1 to Exhibit-D5 were exhibited. The learned Trial Court after hearing the arguments, convicted and sentenced the accused appellants as stated herein-above, aggrieved by which, the present appeals have been filed before this Court.

4. It is contended by the learned counsel for the appellants that all the persons assembled due to some family function. There was no prior enmity between the parties and the dispute took place on the spur of the moment. None of the ac