PRAKASH L GALATGI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD the Advocate for the accused/appellant who was appointed under the Legal Aid Scheme.

(2.) THE accused is in jail since 17-5-1999. He has been convicted by the trial Court under section 307 I. P. C. and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for five years by judgment dated 7-11-2001.

(3.) COUNSEL for the accused contended that he has gone through the entire paper book and he would restrict his argument only on the point of sentence. According to him the accused and the victim were labourers. There was a hot exchange of words, after which both of them got drunk and in that quarrel the accused inflicted one single blow by house knife. Therefore looking to the background in which the quarrel took place and the economic strata to which the accused and the victim belonged, that the accused could not have availed of bail. The offence was only under section 307 I. P. C. and he has been in custody for three years and eight months. The sentence of five years can, in the instant case, be reduced to the sentence undergone. Counsel for the accused also pointed out that as submitted before the trial Court, the accused has an old father to look after and also has two children and therefore considering all these circumstances that the sentence be reduced by taking a lenient view.