SYED SARFARAZ Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants/accused being aggrieved by the judgment and order passed in Sessions Case No. 376 of 2011 convicting them for the offences punishable under Ss. 302, 120-B, 143, 147, 148 read with Sec. 149 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC) and 3 read with 25 of Indian Arms Act and sentencing them to suffer imprisonment for life with fine have preferred these appeals under Sec. 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'Cr.P.C.).

(2.) In nutshell the story of the prosecution can be recorded as under:

(3.) In order to bring home guilt of the accused, prosecution has examined in all 38 witnesses. For the purpose of proving homicidal death of deceased Dr. Zine (PW-31) was examined who categorically opined about cause of death due to multiple fire arms injuries. Ballistic reports (Exhibit 217 and 218) support the said opinion of the Medical Officer. The actual occurrence of incident is sought to be proved through testimonies of Pooja (PW-9) and Manoj (PW-19). The testimonies of Sudhir Mande (PW-27) panch witness for identification parade and evidence of Datta Bharaskar, Executive Magistrate (PW-30) were also relied upon, to establish conduct of identification parade. Ankush Jadhav (PW-22), panch witness who had accompanied the Investigating Officer to Indore deposed about the manner in which two accused persons were accosted and while they were brought to Aurangabad, at there instance how two fire arms and motorcycle were seized from the house of accused Sarfaraj. On the point of conspiracy reliance was sought to be placed on testimony of Mohan Kusalkar (PW-16), a tea vendor, who claimed to have heard the conversation between the accused on 16/05/2011 wherein accused No.1 Raju had instructed co-accused to kill Lashkare. In this regard witness Pardeshi (PW-15) also claimed to have heard the conversation in Yashraj Hotel. Prosecution examined Advocate Pathan (PW-12) who had accompanied accused No.1 Raju to Ajmer and had found Raju to be disturbed and that he used to go away from them while attending phone calls.