(1.) These appeals have been filed by the appellants against the impugned judgment dated 05.04.2004 passed by the Court of Ld. Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi ('ASJ') in Session Case No. SC No.1/2000, arising out of FIR No.576/99 lodged at P.S. Hari Nagar, Delhi under sections 364/365/302/201/394/201 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC'), convicting them for the offences under section 364 read with section 34 IPC, section 302 read with section 34 of the IPC, section 392 read with section 34 of the Penal Code and section 201 read with section 34 of the IPC. The appellants have also impugned the order on sentence dated 07.04.2004 by which they were sentenced as under:
(2.) By this common judgment, we propose to dispose of all the three connected appeals.
(3.) The prosecution's story in a nutshell is that on 11/08/1999 the appellants, Narender Kumar (A-1), Ashok Kumar (A-2) and Ritesh Kumar (A-3) hired a Tata Sumo having registration No. HR 26J 2644 from Verma Travels and Properties, Hari Nagar, Delhi for travelling to Haridwar. The vehicle was owned by one Raj Kumar Sharma (PW-1) and driven by the deceased, Kartar Chand. As per the hiring schedule, the vehicle was to return to Delhi on 12.08.1999. When this did not happen, enquiries were made by the owner of the vehicle namely Sh.Raj Kumar (PW-1), sister of the deceased, Smt.Pawana Sharma (PW-2) and her husband, Sh. Atam Prakash (PW-8).