GOPINATH Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Appeal No. 438 of 2012 has been preferred by appellant / original accused no.1 Gopinath. Criminal Appeal No. 671 of 2013 has been preferred by appellant / original accused no. 2 Nirmala. Both these appeals have been preferred against the judgment and order dated 20.2.2012 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Mangaon Raigad in Sessions Case No. 39 of 2010. By the said judgment and order, the learned Sessions Judge convicted both the appellants under Sections 302 and 201 read with Section 120-B of IPC. For the offence under Section 302 read with Section 120-B, both the appellants have been sentenced to life imprisonment and fine of Rs.1000/- each in default R.I. for six months. For the offence under Section 201 read with Section 120-B of IPC, both the appellants have been sentenced to R.I. for ten years and fine of Rs.500/- each in default R.I. for three months. Substantive sentences were directed to run concurrently. For the sake of convenience, both the appellants shall be referred to as they were referred before the trial Court i.e. Gopinath will be referred to accused no.1 and Nirmala will be referred to as accused no.2.

(2.) The prosecution case, briefly stated, is as under:

(3.) Charge came to be framed against both the accused under sections 302 and 201 read with 34 and Section 120-B of IPC. The accused pleaded not guilty to the said charge and claimed to be tried. The defence of the accused is that of total denial and false implication. After going through the evidence adduced in the present case, the learned Judge convicted and sentenced the accused as stated in para 1 above, hence, these appeals.