SHANTU RUBA GAVIT Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) TWO persons, namely, Shantu Ruba Gavit and Holya Olya Gavit, were tried before the Additional Sessions Judge, Dhule, in Sessions Case No. 117 of 1994 for offence punishable under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Judge vide order dated 30-3-1995 convicted both of them for the said offence and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- each, in default to suffer six months R. I.

(2.) AGGRIEVED by the aforesaid conviction and sentence, Shantu Ruba Gavit preferred Criminal Appeal No. 351 of 1996. Holya Olya Gavit did not prefer any appeal, but sent an application from jail that since the co-accused, Shantu Ruba Gavit, had been convicted and sentenced in the same manner as him and has preferred an appeal, this application be treated as criminal appeal. In the interest of justice, we exercised our inherent powers and, after marking the said application as A for the purposes of identification, directed that it be treated as a criminal appeal and Office should number it when the papers are received by it. We condoned the delay in the filing of the appeal and further directed that it shall be heard forthwith along with Criminal Appeal No. 351 of 1996 preferred by the Appellant Shantu Ruba Gavit, which is on our Final Hearing Board today and which has reached for final hearing. Since both Criminal Appeal No. 351 of 1996 and Holya Olya Gavit's appeal arise out of the same set of facts and a common impugned judgment, we are disposing them of by one judgment.

(3.) THE evidence of A. P. I. Ravindra Sonawane, P. W. 11, shows that on 8-5-1994, he was attached to Police Station, Nawapur, and Kadibai lodged the F. I. R. , on the basis of which Crime No. 44/94 under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered by P. H. C. Bashir.