Hemant Gupta, J.

1. This order shall dispose of aforementioned three criminal appeals directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence rendered by the learned Sessions Judge, Patiala on 05.02.2008 in Sessions Case No.15 of 20.07.2000, whereby accused-appellants namely Abdul Latif Adam Momin; Dilip Kumar Bhujel and Bhupal Man Damai @ Yusuf Nepali were convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 307, 363, 342, 467, 506 read with Section 120 B IPC; under Section 25 of the Arms Act and under Section 4 of the Anti Hijacking Act, 1982 and sentenced to undergo for varying terms as mentioned in the order of sentence.

2. CR.A.No.292-DB of 2009 is preferred by Abdul Latif & CR.A. No.632-DB of 2008 is preferred by Dilip Kumar Bhujel and Yusuf Nepali whereas CR.A. No.725-DB of 2008 has been preferred by the Central Bureau of Investigation. All these appeals are being taken up for hearing together being directed against common judgment. For the facility of references, appellant Abdul Latif Adam Momin shall be hereinafter referred to as ‘Abdul Latif’, whereas appellants Bhupal Man Damai @ Yusuf Nepali and Dilip Kumar Bhujel shall be referred to as ‘Yusuf Nepali’ and ‘Bhujel’ respectively, whereas the Central Bureau of Investigation shall be referred to as ‘the prosecution’. During the course of investigation, the prosecution has found that the accused were using different names at different times. Therefore, to facilitate the prosecution case, the names of the accused along with names used and their relation with the Maulana Masood Azhar, the released prisoner from Indian Jail as a result of negotiations with Government of India, are as under:

Serial number as an accused before the trial Court Names Used Remarks

1. Ibrahim Athar @ Ahmed Ali Mohd. Ali Shaikh @ Javed Amjad Siddiqui @ A.A. Shaikh @ Chief Brother of Masood Azhar

2. Sunny Ahmed Qazi @ S.A. Qazi @ Burger

3. Shahid Sayeed Akhtar @ S.A. Sayeed @ Moti @ Khalid @ Doctor

4. Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry @ Z.I. Mistry @ Bhola

5. Shakir @ Rajesh Gopal Verma @ R.G. Verma @ Farooq Abdul Aziz Siddiqui @ Shankar

6. Abdul Latif Adam Momin

7. Bhupal Man Damai @ Yusuf Nepali

8. Abdul Rauf Brother of Masood Azhar

9. Yusuf Azhar @ Mohd. Salim Sister's husband of Masood Azhar

10. Dilip Kumar Bhujel

All the aforesaid ten accused hereinafter shall be referred to as A-1 to A-10 respectively.

3. The appellants namely Abdul Latif and Bhujel are the Indian Nationals, whereas appellant Yusuf Nepali is a national of Nepal. All other accused are the Pakistan Nationals and are Proclaimed Offenders.

4. The brief facts leading to the present appeals are that an Indian Airlines Flight No.IC–814 ‘Kathmandu to Delhi’ with 179 passengers including 24 foreigners and 11 crew members took off from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu at 16.10 hours on 24.12.1999. When the Flight was in the range of Air Traffic Control Varanasi after being airborne for 45 minutes, the said Flight was hijacked. The hijacker, five in number, directed the Pilot to take the Flight towards West later said to Lahore. PW-1 Capt. Devi Saran deposed that for want of fuel, the Aircraft cannot be flown to Lahore. The Lahore Air Traffic Control also did not permit the air-craft to land at Lahore. Since the air-craft was running short on fuel, the hijackers permitted the Flight to land at Amritsar for re-fueling at 19.00 hours. The hijackers did not permit the Pilot to stop the engine and in order to scare the crew and the authorities’ inflicted passengers namely Rupin Katyal and Satnam Singh with knife blows.

5. The Air-craft took off at 19.45 hours from Amritsar without any refueling. After being airborne for 4/5 minutes, the Pilot sought permission to land at Lahore. However, initially the Air Traffic Control, Lahore did not permit the air-craft to land at Lahore, but in view of low fuel and the fact that there was no option for the Pilot, but to crash land the air-craft, Air Traffic Control, Lahore permitted the ai