SANDHYA JADHAV Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) Appellant calls in question legality of the judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court Nagpur Bench disposing of two appeals; one filed by the appellant and the other by two co-accused persons. Challenge was to the conviction recorded and sentence imposed by the 6th Additional Sessions Judge, Nagpur. Appellant was convicted for offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the "IPC") and was sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- with default stipulation. Appellant was also convicted for offence punishable under Section 325 read with Section 34 IPC along with the other co-accused Kawadu and Arun and all of them were sentenced to suffer RI for 5 years and to pay a fine of Rs.300/- with default stipulation. Co-accused persons were convicted for commission of offence punishable under Section 323 read with Section 34 IPC and sentenced to suffer RI of one year and to pay a fine of Rs.200/- with default stipulation. Appeal filed by the appellant was dismissed.

(3.) Prosecution version which led to trial of the accused persons in brief is as follows: Appellant and co-accused persons were residing as tenants in the house of Govindrao Ghoradkar (PW-2). On 6th June, 1990 at about 8.00 a.m. Govindrao Ghoradkar (PW-2) went to the accused persons for demanding house rent. The accused persons in collusion with one another and in furtherance of their common intention assaulted Govindrao Ghoradkar (PW-2) and when his nephew Anand Ghoradkar (hereinafter referred to as the "deceased") intervened in the matter to separate them, appellant Sandhya delivered a knife blow on the back of the deceased Anand and committed his murder. On the complaint lodged by Govindrao Ghoradkar (PW-2) and Gajanan Ghoradkar, brother of deceased, police registered two separate reports, i.e. (Exh.22) and report (Exh.20) respectively. Investigation was conducted and the accused persons were charge-sheeted for having committed offences punishable u/s 302 read with Section 34 of IPC and u/S 324 read with Section 34 of IPC and so far as accused Nos. 2 and 3 are concerned, they were also charged for having committed offence punishable u/S 323 read with Section 34 of IPC.