SHYAMLAL RAKESHKUMAR SHUKLA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) FOUR life convicts have preferred this Appeal against the judgment and order passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay in Sessions Case No. 1364 of 1993 wherein they were convicted for offence punishable under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and were sentenced to life imprisonment and were also directed to pay a fine of Rs. 100/- each. They came to be acquitted of the charge under section 148 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) THE facts involved in the Appeal in nutshell are thus : on 26th August, 1993, at about 9. 45 a. m. the Goregaon Police Station received a message from the Control Room that a person by name Yadaya Kistya Pancham was murdered near N. K. Industries at Goregaon. After making the necessary diary entry, the officers, went to the spot and found the body on the first floor of a building under construction. At the site, the police came across one Babu Pancham, the brother of the deceased, who informed the police that the appellants had a quarrel with his brother and, therefore, suspected the appellants to be the culprits.

(3.) THE statement given by Babu Pancham was treated as an F. I. R. and the investigation commenced on registration of the offence against the appellants at C. R. No. 415 of 1993 at the Goregaon Police Station under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The inquest was held. The police noticed as many as 20 incised wounds on the body. Blood and water mixed blood were collected from the spot. Cotton soaked in blood was also seized. Clothes on the person of the deceased were taken charge of and inquest-cum-seizure panchanama was drawn. The body was sent for autopsy to Cooper Hospital. Appellant Nos. 1 and 2 were arrested on 26th August, 1993. Their clothes also were seized by the police on 28-8-1993. While in police custody they volunteered to make a statement and consequently led the police to recover the alleged weapons of offence, viz. knife and an iron bar behind a public urinal near a petrol pump on Balbhat Road. Appellant Nos. 3 and 4 came to be arrested on 29-8-1993. They also made voluntary statements while in police custody. They consequently led the police to recover a sword and an iron pipe allegedly used in commission of the offence. Those were seized from a drum filled with water, lying behind a public urinal at N. K. Industrial Estate. All the said four articles of offence were duly seized, labelled and sealed under panchanama. They were in continuation of the memorandum earlier drawn by the police at the Police Station on 17-9-1993. Appellant Nos. 3 and 4 had also volunteered to show the place where they had kept the clothes and consequently some clothes were recovered from the spot at their instance. In the course of investigation three identification parades were conducted by the Special Executive Magistrate and in them the witnesses identified the accused persons. All the items seized during the investigation were forwarded to the Chemical Analyser for scientific examination.