SAURABH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these appeals are being disposed of by this common judgment as they arise out of the same judgment and order, which have been assailed in all these appeals, they constituting the common cause for these appellants to feel aggrieved in this case.

(2.) The judgment and order under challenge have been rendered in Special Criminal MCOC No.7/2013 on 23/05/2016 by the Special Judge designated under MCOC Act and Additional Sessions Judge-5, Nagpur. By this judgment and order, the appellants numbering five in total have been found guilty of the offences punishable under Sections 302, 143, 147 and 148 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC' for short) and innocent of the offences punishable under Sections 3(1)(i) and 3(4) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act ('MCOC Act' for short) and also under Sections 4 and 25 of the Arms Act. For their such guilt, the Special Judge has awarded to these appellants, such punishments as imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.2,000/- with default sentence of one year for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 of IPC for each of the appellants, rigorous imprisonment for three months and fine of Rs.500/- with default sentence of one month for an offence under Section 143 for each of the appellants, rigorous imprisonment of six months and fine of Rs.750/- with default sentence of two months for an offence under Section 147 for each of the appellants and rigorous imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs.1000/- with default sentence of three months for an offence under Section 148 of IPC for each of the appellants. There was one more accused, who was tried for all these offences along with the appellants, original accused No.4 - Narendra @ Naru Nandurkar, but he has been acquitted of all the offences with which he was charged in this case.

(3.) For the sake of convenience, we would now refer to these appellants by their nomenclature as accused and the order in which they were arrayed as accused in the charge-sheet. Appellant - Rohit Ramteke in Criminal Appeal No.432/2016 was the original accused No.1, appellant - Ketan Shambharkar in Criminal Appeal No.223/2016 was the original accused No.2, appellant Nos.1 & 2 Saurabh Adlak and Sumit @ Sandy Bhasme in Criminal Appeal No.228/2016 respectively were original accused Nos.3 & 6 and Appellant - Chandrashekhar @ Chandrya in Criminal Appeal No.238/2017 was original accused No.5.