- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The respondent was arrested in connection with Crime No. 129/99 registered by the Police Station, Goregaon for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 109, 120B, 364, 397, 201 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 3(i)(xi) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He has been granted bail pending trial vide the order impugned in this appeal on the ground that there was no material on record to establish the involvement of the respondent in the commission of the crime and that the accused was not aware of the criminal conspiracy, in execution of which, the deceased Shubhangi was killed.
(3.) According to the prosecution, the respondent had a love affair with the deceased Shubhangi. The deceased was insisting for marriage to which the respondent and his mother were not agreeable as the deceased belonged to Scheduled Caste and the respondent belonged to Teli community which is considered as higher caste. The respondent is alleged to have hatched a conspiracy to get rid of Shubhangi by eliminating her. In furtherance of the conspiracy and to create evidence in his favour, the respondent went to Baramati on 25th November, 1999. On 11-12-1999 one Ms. Vanita contacted the deceased, who was working at Nagpur, and took her to market on the pretext of making preparations for marriage of the deceased with the respondent. In the evening, the other accused, namely, Ashish, Dinesh and Ajay came in a Maruti Car and picked up the deceased along with Ms. Vanita and took her to Ramtek. A contract killer is alleged to have been hired by the accused to murder the deceased. As the alleged contract killer did not reach on that day, the criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused could not be implemented. Again on 13-11-1999 accused Ms. Vanita took the deceased on the pretext of solemnising her marriage with the respondent. To the misfortune of the accused, the killing was not accomplished even on that day as their car had met with an accident in which Ms. Vanita, accused had sustained some injuries. The task of murdering the deceased was accomplished on 15-12-1999. The deceased was inflicted injuries with knife and stone and was also strangulated. In order to conceal the identity of the victim, the accused persons took away her purse, bag and other articles from the dead body and later on burnt the same.;