KHUSHAL RAO Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal on a certificate of fitness under Art. 134 (1) (c), granted by the High Court at Nagpur (as it then was), is directed against the concurrent judgment and orders of the Courts below, so far as the appellant Khushal is concerned, convicting and sentencing him to death under S. 302, Indian Penal Code, for the pre-mediated murder of Baboolal on the night of February 12, 1956, in one of the quarters of the city of Nagpur.

(2.) It appears that there are two rival factions in what has been called the Mills area in Nagpur. The appellant and Tukaram who has been acquitted by the High Court, are the leaders of one of the factions, and Ramgopal, P. W. 4, Inayatullah, P. W. 1, and Tantu, P. W. 5, are said to be the leaders of the opposite faction. Before the time and date of the occurrence, there had been a number of incidents between the two rival factions in respect of some of which, Inayatullah and Tantu aforesaid had been prosecuted.

(3.) Having come to know the names of two of the alleged assailants of Baboolal from his recorded dying declarations, the police became busy apprehending those persons. They could not be found at their respective houses. The appellant was arrested four days later in an out-house locked from outside, of a bungalow on Seminary Hill in Nagpur. The other person named as one of the assailants, Tukaram, was arrested much later. The prosecution case it that these persons were absconding and keeping out of the way of the police.