JUDGMENT

N. SANTOSH HEGDE, J.- All these appeals arise out of a common judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad whereby the High Court while allowing the appeal of two of the accused persons, dismissed the appeal of three other accused persons, all of whom were convicted by the IIIrd Additional Sessions Judge, Deoria (U.P.) of offences punishable under Sections 143, 148, 149, 504, 506, 307 and 302 IPC. Three of the accused whose appeals were dismissed by the High Court, have preferred Criminal Appeals Nos. 1072-73 of 2003 and the State has preferred Criminal Appeals Nos. 1074-75 of 2003 against the acquittal of two of the accused persons who were convicted by the trial court for the abovementioned offences.

2. We will first take up Criminal Appeals Nos. 1072-73 of 2003 for consideration which, as stated above, are the appeals filed by the convicted accused.

3. The facts necessary for the disposal of these appeals, briefly stated, are as follows:

It is the prosecution case that there was enmity between one of the deceased Abid Ali and A-3 Jaishree Yadav, A-5 Daddan Yadav in regard to the auction and recovery of tehbazari of the area between Village Tatil Tola and Nawalpur Crossing. A-6 Ram Pratap Yadav bore an enmity against the deceased Abid Ali on account of a pending litigation relating to land in Village Tatil Tola. A-1 Hafiz Khairul Bashr was on inimical terms with the said deceased in relation to the fixation of an electric pole on Chowk Road. It is also the prosecution case that on account of these enmities, these accused persons were waiting for an opportunity to eliminate the said deceased Abid All. It is the further case of the prosecution that on 23-9-1993 at about 5.50 p.m. deceased Abid Ali had come from Deoria, his place of residence, in his private jeep and was sitting on a takhat in front of Pervez Book Stores, north of Nawalpur Crossing. At that moment, Raju @ Noor Alam (PW 6) who had a shop selling sand and clay, came to deceased Abid Ali and complained that A-3 Jaishree Yadav was raising a dispute with him (PW 6) in regard to tehbazari money. It is also the prosecution case that PW 1 who was working as a teacher in a school at Salempur of which the deceased Abid Ali was the Manager, was then passing through the said place where the said deceased was sitting and seeing him PW 1 came to talk to the said deceased. This was at about 4.15 p.m. The prosecution also states that PW 3 Arif Ali, son of deceased Abid Ali, who was a resident of that village, was also present there at that time. It is the further case of the prosecution that at that time eight persons including A-1 Hafiz Khairul Bashr, A-2 Jaheed, A-3 Jaishree Yadav, A-4 Manish Yadav, A-5 Daddan Yadav, A-6 Ram Pratap Yadav and two other unidentified persons came armed to that place. Amongst them, A-1 and A-2 and the unidentified persons were having country-made pistols (katta), A-3 and A-4 were carrying bombs and bags in their hands; A-5 and A-6 were carrying a knife and an iron "dav" respectively. The prosecution further alleges that A-3 Jaishree Yadav questioned PW 6 as to the propriety of his complaint to deceased Abid Ali. Other accused questioned the authority of deceased Abid Ali to meddle in a dispute between them and PW 6. It is stated that the deceased Abid Ali warned them by asking them to have control over their language. At this stage the prosecution alleges that A-1 exhorted the a other accused to kill Abid Ali. Pursuant to the same, A-3 and A-4 hurled bombs at Abid Ali because of which Abid Ali received injuries and started running northwards to save himself. The prosecution then alleges that all the accused persons chased the deceased Abid Ali, hurling bombs and firing pistol-shots at him and in this process when Abid Ali reached "palani", of one Idris, one Mahmood Shah (Deceased 2), a resident of the same village, b tried to intervene, hence, the accused hurled bombs and fired pistol-shots at Abid Ali and Mahmood Shah in front