1. The appellant in Crl.A.No.474 of 2006 is the 1st accused, the appellants in Crl.A.No.331 of 2006 are the 2nd and 3rd accused and the appellant in Crl.A.No.490 of 2006 is the 4th accused, in S.C.No.626 of 2004 on the file of the Additional Sessions Judge, Poonamallee at Chennai. The accused 1 to 3 stand convicted for offences under Sections 342, 392 r/w 397 and 452 of I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months, for the offences under Section 342 of I.P.C., to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years for the offence under Section 392 r/w 397 of I.P.C., and to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years for the offence under Section 452 of I.P.C. The 4th accused has been convicted under Sections 392 r/w 109 of I.P.C. and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for four years. Challenging the above conviction and sentence, the appellants have come forward with these appeals.

2.The facts of the case in brief would be as follows:

(i)P.W.1 is a resident of the house bearing Door No.28, North Road, West C.I.T. Nagar, Chennai. P.W.2 is the brother of P.W.1. P.W.3 is the maid servant at the House of P.W.1. P.W.1's husband was working as a Teacher in a college and he used to leave the house at 12 noon every day. P.W.1 had a daughter who also used to go to the college in the morning. The 4th accused had worked as a driver with P.W.1 for some time before 5 to 6 years. In such a way, the 4th accused had the knowledge of the activities and the properties of P.W.1.

(ii)On 05.04.2004 at about 1.30 p.m., while P.W.1 and P.W.3 were at home, three persons came to the house. The watchman of the house was waiting outside. They told the watchman that they had come to meet the inmates of the house. The watchman entered into the house to inform the same. At that time, the three persons (later identified as A1 to A3) also followed him into the house. They attacked the watchman Muthu, pushed him into a room and closed the door.

(iii)P.W.1 on hearing the scream of the watchman, came to the hall of the house from the kitchen and found the accused 1 to 3 standing there. All the three accused had knives in their hands. P.W.3 also rushed towards the said place. All the three accused brandished the knives against P.Ws.1 and 3. They forced them to part with their properties including money. Out of fear, P.Ws.1 and 3 did not raise any alarm.

(iv)Then, the accused 1 to 3 opened the almirah and found nothing in the same. They put P.Ws.1 and 3 in a room and after sometime, the first accused took P.W.1 outside the room. He directed P.W.1 to part with her jewels. P.W.1 raised alarm. But, the first accused snatched away six gold bangles (each weighing 1.5 sovereigns), two gold chains weighing 5 sovereigns, a gold ring with stones and three ordinary rings without stones, all made of gold.

(v)The first accused collected all the jewels. The third accused was keeping P.W.3 and another maid under threat by brandishing the knife.

(vi)At that time, P.W.2 in the usual manner came to the house for lunch. He found the watchman not standing near the place earmarked for him. Near the main door of the house, A2 was standing and he was having a knife in his hand. P.W.2 developed a suspicion that some untoward incident was happening. Suddenly, the second accused attacked him and then he escaped. The first accused rushed outside the house and tried to cut P.W.2 on his face, but the blow fell on the nose and caused a serious injury (P.W.2 had to undergo plastic surgery to correct the cut nose).

(vii)The 4th accused Jebasekar was standing near a tea stall by the side of the house of P.W.1. When P.W.2 raised alarm, the accused 1 to 3 ran away. The 4th accused who was standing near the tea stall joined them and fled away from the scene of occurrence.

(viii)On hearing the alarm raised by P.W.2, the neighbours rushed towards the place of occurrence and chased the assailants, but they could not catch them as the assailants brandished the knives and ma