1. Appellant No.1 Ram Prasad, appellant No. 2 Ram Sharan, appellant No.3 Sukhram and appellant No. 4 Dhanaram were tried by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Surajpur in Sessions Trial No.357/1998 for offence punishable under S.302 of the IPC or in alternative, under S.302 read with S.34 of the IPC and by the impugned judgment dated 20-9-2000, they were convicted for the offence under S.302 of the IPC and each of them were sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay fine of Rs.1,000/- and in failure to pay the fine each of them has to undergo additional RI for a period of five months.

2. Questioning the legality and validity of the judgment of conviction recorded and sentence awarded, this appeal has been preferred by the appellants.

3. During the pendency of appeal, since appellant No.1 Ram Prasad has died which has been duly recorded in the order sheet dated 8-5-2006. This is how the appeal of appellant Nos.2, 3 and 4 is before us.

4. The prosecution case unfolded during the course of trial is as under: -
Admitted facts
4.1) That, accused appellant Nos. 1, 2, 3 and complainant Sukhsagar (PW - 1) are real brothers. Accused appellant No. 4 is son of accused appellant No. 2