JUDGMENT :

S. K. SAHOO, J.

The appellant in Criminal Appeal No.584 of 2014 Subash Kumar Barman, the appellant in Criminal Appeal No.445 of 2015 Raj @ Rajendra Singh and the appellant in Criminal Appeal No.116 of 2016 Sujit Kumar Sao @ Gupta along with three co-accused persons namely, Munna @ Biswajit Singh, Tahir Anshari and Santosh Sharma faced trial in the Court of learned Assistant Sessions Judge, Sambalpur in S.T. Case No.109/85 of 2009 for offences punishable under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.

The learned Trial Court vide impugned judgment and order dated 28.10.2014 acquitted the accused persons of the charges under sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act but convicted them under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years and to pay a fine of Rs.20,000/- (rupees twenty thousand) each, in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months.

Since all the three appeals arise out of a common judgment, with the consent of the parties, those were heard analogously and disposed of by this common judgment.

2. The prosecution case, as per the first information