GOPAL SHANKARAPPA RATHOD Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been preferred against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Kolhapur, in Sessions Case No.49 of 2014 on 22 nd April 2015 convicting the appellant-accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.1,000/- (Rupees One Thousand Only), in default, to further suffer simple imprisonment for one month.

(2.) In short, the prosecution case runs as under :-

(3.) Ms.Payoshi Roy, learned counsel for the appellant/accused, has advanced twofold submission. First submission advanced by the learned counsel is in respect of delayed forwarding of FIR to the concerned Magistrate sans explanation. On this aspect alone, the truthfulness of the contents of the FIR needs to be questioned seriously, according to the learned counsel. Secondly, the whole case is based on circumstantial evidence and the learned trial Court misdirected itself while appreciating those circumstances, in as much as, those circumstances which have been relied by the prosecution are not sufficiently established and therefore, the learned trial Court committed patent illegality in convicting the accused based on those circumstances. For all these reasons, the appeal deserves to be allowed, argued learned counsel. The learned counsel also placed reliance in Mahadeo Kundalik Vaidya and Others vs. State of Maharashtra1 2001 SCC Online Bom 1119 : 2001 Cri.L.J. 4306 and Anant Bhujangrao Kulkarni vs. State of Maharashtra .1993 Supp (2) Supreme Court Cases 267