AVINASH MARUTI DIMBLE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition challenging the categorisation by the State of the petitioner under the guidelines for premature release. The State Government has determined the period of imprisonment to be undergone by the petitioner as 26 years.

(2.) The facts of the matter are that the accused was, in fact, residing in the flat of the deceased Shakuntala. She was alone in the flat. One night the accused went to her flat and gave two blows on her face with a pounder which resulted into fractures of skull and, thereafter, he strangled her. The accused also took prosecution to close the doors of the neighbours from outside so that they could not disturb him. The accused, thereafter, opened the cupboard and the locker in the cupboard and committed theft of her clothes and ornaments. He had also stolen her wrist watch. He then opened the door of the kitchen and kept the dead body of the deceased in the cupboard below the kitchen platform and, thereafter, he washed the floor of the kitchen where blood had fallen. He locked Shakuntala's flat and went away with the keys at about 6 a.m.

(3.) In our opinion, the accused had not only committed murder of a helpless woman who must have trusted him, but he had committed the murder in a cruel manner. Killing a woman staying alone by breaking her skull and, thereafter, strangling her and that too with the motive of robbing her ornaments is extremely cruel and perverse. Category 3(d) provides for murder committed with premeditation and with exceptional violence or perversity and provides 26 years of imprisonment. In our opinion, the facts and circumstances of the case clearly fall under category 3(d) and, as such, the State has correctly determined 26 years as the period to be undergone. We find no merit in this petition and, accordingly, the petition is dismissed. The rule is discharged.