By the Court.—The instant appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 26.3.1983 passed by the IIIrd Additional Sessions Judge, Rampur whereby the appellants have been convicted for life imprisonment under Section 302 read with Section 149 I.P.C., under Section 147 I.P.C. for six months rigorous imprisonment and under Section 148 I.P.C. for one year rigorous imprisonment in S.T. No. 16 of 1982 arising out of case Crime No. 168 of 1982, police station Swar, district Rampur. All the sentences were directed to run concurrently. The appellant No. 1 Abdul Hakeem and appellant No. 5 Ahmad Hasan have died and their appeal stood abated by this Court vide order dated 5.10.2015, hence we are now proceeding to hear the appeal against the surviving appellants, namely, Shamsher, Nazeer Ahmad and Mohammad Mustaqeem.

2. Sri N.I. Jafri, Advocate has appeared on behalf of the appellant Nos. 3 and 4 Nazeer Ahmad and Mohammad Mustaqeem and Sri T.A. Khan, learned counsel has appeared on behalf of the appellant No. 2 Shamsher.

3. The genesis of the prosecution in short conspectus is a First Information Report was lodged by Maqbool on 24.9.1981 at 4 P.M. in respect of an incident occu