(1.) Since both of these criminal appeals have arisen out of impugned judgment dtd. 27/05/2016 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge Pratappur, Distt. Surajpur in Sessions Trial No. 27/2015, therefore, they have been clubbed together, heard together and are being decided by this common judgment.
(2.) The six appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 827/2016 namely Kamleshwar Painkra (A-1), Kripashankar Painkra (A-2), Jagendra Kumar (A-3), Shivlal Gond (A-4), Baldev (A-7) and Dhanushdhari (A-8) as well as the two appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 1133/2016 namely Shyam Painkra (A 5) and Ramkumar Painkra (A-6); all have preferred these appeals under Sec. 374(2) of CrPC calling in question the validity, legality and correctness of the judgment impugned whereby each one of them have been convicted and sentenced as under :-
(3.) Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 11/06/2015 in between 11PM-12AM, the eight appellants herein along with two other co-accused persons namely Smt. Shanti and Smt. Abha Painkra constituted an unlawful assembly in the forest range of Chitkabahra at Village Gotgaon with the intention of obstructing Forester Motilal Kushwaha (deceased), Forester Hemlal Sahu (P.W.-7), Beat Guard Sohan (P.W.-10) and Forest Guard Jaikaran (P.W.-11) from performing governmental work and assaulted them with deadly and dangerous weapons and in furtherance of their common intention, caused the death of Motilal Kushwaha and injured Hemlal Sahu (P.W.-7), Sohan (P.W.-10) and Jaikaran (P.W.-11) and thereby, committed the aforesaid offences.