VAIBHAV Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a tale of two friends, Vaibhav and Mangesh, who were studying at Bagla Homeopathy Medical College, Arvat Chandrapur, Maharashtra. They were students of first year and often used to commute together on their two-wheelers. On the fateful day of 16/9/2010, both friends left the college together on the scooter belonging to Mangesh, had tea at the tea stall of PW-3 and arrived at Vaibhav's house in the afternoon. When Mangesh's father/PW-1 discovered late in the evening that his son had not reached home, he tried to find out and eventually lodged a missing report. The next day, on 17/9/2010, the dead body of Mangesh was found and accordingly, the present criminal case came to be registered against unknown persons.

(2.) Investigation commenced and a supplementary statement of PW-1 was recorded wherein he raised suspicion against Vaibhav, Mangesh's friend, classmate, scooter partner and appellant before us in the present appeal. Upon investigation, the police prepared the chargesheet wherein the appellant was alleged to have caused death of deceased Mangesh by shooting him by the gun belonging to the appellant's father/PW-12.

(3.) Upon trial, the Trial Court found that the appellant had killed Mangesh using the service gun belonging to his father when he came to drop him after college. Thereafter, the appellant called his friends Vishal and Akash (juvenile at the time of incident) for helping him in the disposal of the dead body. The appellant was found guilty for the commission of the offences under Ss. 302, 201 read with Sec. 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred as "IPC" for brevity) and Sec. 5 read with 25(1)(a) of Arms Act, 1959. His friend Vishal was also found guilty for the commission of the offence under Sec. 201 read with Sec. 34 of IPC. Both the convicts had preferred separate appeals before the Bombay High Court and both the appeals came to be disposed of by the impugned judgment, wherein the conviction of the appellant was upheld and Vishal was acquitted for want of evidence. The present appeal assails the said impugned judgment dtd. 13/6/2012 passed in Criminal Appeal No. 57/2012.