STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. SHASHIKANT KESHAVLAL PARMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Confirmation Case along with the companion Criminal Appeal by the original accused arise out of order of conviction and sentence dated 31/07/1981 rendered by the learned Additional Sessions Judge Rajkot in Sessions Case No. 57 of 1980. By his aforesaid decision the learned Additional Sessions Judge has convicted the original accused Shashikant Keshavlal Parmar under sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code for committing triple murders of Gaurishanker Ishwarlal Dave Ashaben Niranjan Dave and Vibha Narendra Dave. He has also convicted the accused for offence punishable under sec. 307(2) of the Indian Penal Code for having caused serious injuries to prosecution witness Janak Kanaiyalal. He has also convicted the accused for the offence punishable under sec. 324 of the Indian Penal Code for having caused knife injuries to prosecution witness Kanaiyalal Jagjivan. The learned trial Judge has also found the accused guilty of an offence of criminal trespass punishable under sec. 452 of the Indian Penal Code for having committed criminal trespass in the house of Hasubhai Dave after taking preparation for committing the offence which would be punishable with imprisonment. He has also convicted the accused for the offence punishable under sec. 135 of the Bombay Police Act for contravention of the notification issued under sec. 37(1) of the Bombay Police Act 1951

(2.) For the offence punishable under sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code for three different murders the learned trial Judge has sentenced the accused to death and has directed that the accused should be hanged by neck till his death. That is of course subject to its confirmation by this Court.

(3.) The accused Shashikant Keshavlal Parmar who is the appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 826 of 1981 and who will be referred to by us in the later part of this judgment as the accused was charged under secs. 302 307 324 452 of the Indian Penal Code and under src. 135 of the Bombay Police Act 1951 for having caused fatal injuries by two knives to deceased Gaurishanker Ishwarlal Dave Ashaben Niranjan Dave and minor infant Vibha Narendra Dave as well as having caused severe injuries to Janak Kanaiyalal Pandya and a simple hurt to Kanaiyalal Jagjivan Pandya on 17/10/1980 at about 7-45 p.m. in a building named and styled as Yogesh belonging to Advocate Hasubhai Gaurishanker Dave of Rajkot situated in Gaekwadi Plot area of Rajkot City. As revealed from the prosecution case against the accused it is found that in the twilight hours of 17/10/1980 which was the eighth day of Navratra known as Havanasthami a grim tragedy struck the household of one Hasubhai Gaurishanker Dave a practicing Advocate at Rajkot Labour Court Bar who was at the relevant time the President of the said Bar. In the process three innocent lives were lost and two neighbors got injured. Those innocent victims who lost their lives were Gaurishanker Ishwarlal Dave the aged father of Advocate Hasubhai who was reciting prayers at the relevant time in the Pooja room of Yogesh building the minor infant girl Vibha Narendrabhai niece of Advocate Hasubhai and Ashaben Niranjanbhai wife of the brother of Hasubhai. Two neighbours who were staying opposite and who came to rescue the inmates of the house from the attack by the assailant accused also got injured in the process and these neighbours were Janak Kanaiyalal Pandya and Kanaiyalal Jagjivan Pandya. The injuries received by Janak Kanaiyalal Pandya on the vital part of his body practically landed him in the jaws of death but by a stroke of good-luck he survived. The prosecution case further is that the District Magistrate Rajkot had issued a Notification under sec. 37(1) of the Bombay Police Act prohibiting persons from carrying dangerous Weapons like knives and in violation of the said notification the accused had armed himself with deadly knives at the relevant time and hence he was guilty of an offence punishable under sec. 135 of the Bombay Police Act. It is the prosecution case that the accused who was aged about 28 years at the time of the incident was belonging to Veraval. He was harbouring a grudge against Advocate Hasubhai Gaurishanker Dave though the said grudge was misplaced and uncalled for and that the accused had made studied preparations to do away with the family members of said Hasubhai with a view to inflict severe sufferings on said Hasubhai. The accused accordingly having made all preparations and being armed with two knives criminally trespassed upon the residential house Yogesh belonging to said Hasubhai and thereafter had perpetrated the aforesaid crime by fatally injuring and taking lives of three innocent inmates of Hasubhais house and by injuring two neighbours who came on spot to discharge their neighbourly functions and for rendering assistance and help to the victims. The charge (Exh.1) as framed by the learned trial Judge clearly brings out the relevant details of the alleged offences said to have been committed by the accused on the fateful evening of 17/10/1980