Hon'ble Mrs. Ranjana Pandya,J.

1. Since all the three afore-captioned criminal appeals have been filed against the judgment and order dated 15.04.2014 passed by the learned Special Judge, Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Kanpur Dehat in Sessions Trial No. 140 of 2002 (State of U.P. vs Mahesh Chandra Gupta and others), hence they are being decided by this common order.

2. Challenge in these appeals is to the judgment and order dated 15.04.2014 passed by the learned Special Judge, Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Kanpur Dehat in Sessions Trial No. 140 of 2002 (State of U.P. vs Mahesh Chandra Gupta and others), arising out of Case Crime No. 189 of 2002, under Sections 343, 368, 376 and 506 IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Police Station Sajeti, District Kanpur Nagar, whereby the accused-appellants Mahesh Chandra Gupta and Jagat Lal Sachan have been convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000/- each under Section 343 IPC and two years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000/- each under Section 506 IPC and accused-appellants Mahesh Chandra Gupta, Jagat Lal Sachan and Mahaveer Chamar have also been convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 2000/- each under Section 368 IPC and ten years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5000/- each under Section 376(2)(g) IPC with default stipulation.

3. The brief facts giving rise to the present appeals are that an application was given by the informant Ram Sajiwan to the Commissioner, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Castes Tribes, Commission, Lucknow to the effect that the informant is the resident of Kanpur Dehat and belongs to scheduled caste. On 02.06.2002, he along with other family members had gone to attend the marriage ceremony of his relative leaving his daughter, the victim in the house alone. On the same day, a Barat also came in the house of Ram Babu. Mahesh s/o Chin Buddha Bharbhuja, Jagat Lal s/o Girja Shanker Sachan, finding her daughter alone in the house, took her away forcibly on the point of country made pistol. When he returned to his house, he did not find his daughter. Thereafter, he made a search at the house of his relatives and friends, but she could not be traced out. He informed the village Chaukidar about this incident at 02:00 in the night. In the morning, the informant went to the police station and handed over a written report at the police station. However, he continued the search of his daughter. On 04.06.2002, Mahgu and Kesan, resident of his village, had gone to Kanpur civil court where they saw his daughter(the victim) along with the aforesaid accused-persons. The victim was fearful. On being told by them, the informant informed the police. In the meantime, on 06.06.2002, the victim returned her house. She told the informant that she had danger to her life and the accused left her outside the village. The informant informed this fact to the police, but as no action was taken by the police, he had given an application to the Commissioner, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Lucknow on 10.06.2002, which he proved it as Ext. Ka-1.

4. On the basis of the aforesaid information, first information report was registered at case crime No. 189 of 2002, under Section 364 IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (hereinafter referred as SC and ST Act) against Mahesh Chandra Gupta and Jagat Lal Sachan at Police Station Sajeti, District Kanpur Nagar.

5. As the case pertained to SC and ST Act, the investigation of the case was entrusted to Shri Kamlesh Dixit, Circle Officer, PW-4, who copied the written report and recorded the statement of the chik scriber. On 10.07.2002, he recorded the statement of the informant. On 12.07.2002, he copied the medical report of the victim. He inspected the spot and prepared the site plan, which