NANHAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant five in number, in both the appeals, feeling aggrieved by the judgment and order of conviction dated 7/5/2008 passed in Criminal Appeal No. 919-DB/2006 by Division Bench of High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh, arising out of the judgment and order of conviction dated 24/11/2006 and order of sentence dated 25/11/2006 pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge, Bhiwani, convicting them for commission of offences under Sections 302/149 of the IPC and awarding sentence to undergo RI for life, together with fine of Rs. 2,000/-, are before us challenging the same on variety of grounds.

(2.) It may be mentioned herein that initially charge-sheet was filed only against four accused namely Nanhar, Virender @ Binder, Rampat and Rajbir @ Meda under Sections 306/34 IPC. The name of the fifth accused Umed Singh was added subsequently by the Trial Court on an application being filed by the prosecution under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and allowed on 3.6.2004. The order of committal makes it clear that the first four appellants were charged and prosecuted for commission of offence under Sections 306/34 IPC. Accordingly it was committed to Court of Sessions for being tried for the aforesaid offences. However, on 5.10.2004 charge was framed by the learned Trial Judge under Sections 302/34 IPC. Even though Umed Singh was added subsequently as one of the accused but the charge was not altered to one under Section 149 of the I.P.C.

(3.) Thumbnail sketch of the facts of the case is as under: