Bombay High Court
State Of Maha vs Sanjay Motiram Chavan on 11 March, 2021
Bench: R.V. Ghuge, B. U. Debadwar
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OPERATIVE ORDER IN CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.482/2003
DATED 11/03/2021
(State of Maharashtra Vs. Sanjay Motiram Chavan)
1.
With the above conclusions that the accused stands convicted for
the offence punishable u/s 307 and 452 of the IPC, we called upon the
learned Advocate for the accused to make his submissions on the quantum
of the punishment. He consulted the accused present in the Court and has
submitted as under :-
[a] 18 years have passed by, ever since the incident.
[b] Though the accused has been acquitted in 2 cases RCC
No.17/2001, u/s 394 of the IPC and RCC No.59/2001 u/s 394 of the
IPC and though he has been convicted as a juvenile in 1993 and in the
present case as well, he should be awarded minimum sentence.
[c] The accused is now married, has a grown up daughter and two
sons and is the sole earning member of the family. Mercy may be
shown towards him and by adopting a lenient view, minimum
punishment may be awarded.
2. The learned Prosecutor submits that the accused must have carried
rage in his mind as he could not gain an entry in the house of a Judicial
Officer and he returned the next day and committed the crime, which
indicates that he planned his moves by thinking over the said incident and
planned his entry in the house when the door was opened and he found the
victim alone in the kitchen. Before she could enter into any argument with
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him or seek someone's help to drive him out, being a stranger, he began
stabbing her. Two life threatening injuries and another knife injury, which
was not serious, indicates that he had decided to stab her multiple times.
As such, he prays for life sentence.
3. We have thoughtfully considered the submissions of the learned
Advocate. We would have been justified in handing down a sentence of
life imprisonment. However, keeping in view that the accused is married,
has a family of 3 children and a wife and appears to be the earning
member of the family, we are sentencing him to suffer rigorous
imprisonment for 7 years and with a fine of Rs.10,000/- (Rs.Ten thousand
only), i.d. of which further rigorous imprisonment for 6 months.
4. The period spent by him behind bars as an under trial from
31.1.2001 till the pronouncement of the impugned judgment dated
20.5.2003, shall be set off against the sentence u/s 428 of the Cr.P.C.
5. The accused shall surrender forthwith and shall be produced before
the Trial Court by the Court Constable who has kept him present in the
Court today by accompanying him. For the present, he will be lodged in
the Harsul Central Jail at Aurangabad till tomorrow and after this judgment
is uploaded, he shall be taken to the Trial Court for surrendering. The
learned Trial Court shall follow the procedure prescribed in Law for
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remanding the accused to the prison for undergoing the sentence.
( B.U. DEBADWAR, J. ) ( RAVINDRA V. GHUGE, J. )
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