Bombay High Court
Ankush Somnath Yele vs The State Of Maharashtra on 16 March, 2022
Bench: V.K. Jadhav, Sandipkumar Chandrabhan More
cran694.22
-1-
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
931 CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 695 OF 2022
IN
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 145 OF 2022
1. Sachin s/o Vikram Yele
2. Tukaram s/o Vikram Yele ... Applicants
Versus
The State of Maharashtra ... Respondent
WITH
CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.694 OF 2022
IN
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 146 OF 2022
Ankush Somnath Yele ... Applicant
Versus
The State of Maharashtra ... Respondent
.....
Advocate for Applicants : Mr. Sudarshan J. Salunke
APP for Respondent-State : Mr. S. D. Ghayal
.....
CORAM : V. K. JADHAV AND
SANDIPKUMAR. C. MORE, JJ.
DATED : 16th MARCH, 2022
PER COURT:-
1. Pending criminal appeal No. 145 of 2022 and criminal appeal
no. 146 of 2022 preferred against the judgment and order of
conviction dated 8.2.2022 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge,
Bhoom, District Osmanabad in Sessions Case No. 8 of 2019,
convicting thereby the applicants original accused Nos. 3, 4 and 9 for
the offences punishable under Sections 302 r.w. 149 of IPC, 307 r.w.
149 of IPC, 324 r.w. 149 of IPC, 323 r.w. 149 of IPC, 506 r.w. 149 of
::: Uploaded on - 17/03/2022 ::: Downloaded on - 18/03/2022 07:21:05 :::
cran694.22
-2-
IPC and Sections 143, 147 and 148 of I.P.C., the applicants [original
accused no.3 Sachin Vikram Yele and original accused no.4
Tukaram Vikram Yele] have preferred criminal application no. 695 of
2022 and the applicant [original accused no.9 Ankush Somnath Yele]
has preferred criminal application no. 694 of 2022, for suspension of
substantive part of the sentence and for bail.
2. Learned counsel for the applicants in both the applications
submits that though there are allegations about formation of an
unlawful assembly and in prosecution of the common unlawful object
of the said assembly, deceased Manoj was murdered, however, the
allegations have been made mainly against accused No.7 Vikram.
Learned counsel submits that there are eye witnesses to the incident
and according to them, original accused No.7 Vikram has given a
blow of axe on the head of deceased Manoj. Learned counsel
submits that so far as the applicants are concerned, though there are
allegations about the weapons stick, wooden log of spade etc.
possessed by them, however, it is not clear from the prosecution
evidence as to whom they have extended beating. Learned counsel
submits that as per the postmortem report, deceased Manoj had only
one injury on occipital region of his bone and that has resulted into
his death. Accused No.7 Vikram is the author of the said injury.
Learned counsel submits that injured witness P.W. Apparao and
P.W. Birmal have sustained simple injuries. P.W. Lahu, who is
another injured eye witness, has sustained injuries. However, there is
::: Uploaded on - 17/03/2022 ::: Downloaded on - 18/03/2022 07:21:05 :::
cran694.22
-3-
only one grievous injury on his head and the other injuries on the non
vital parts of his person. Furthermore, it is also not clear from his
evidence as to which of the accused has caused him the said injury.
Learned counsel submits that it is also difficult to understand from the
prosecution evidence that the applicants before the court had
knowledge that accused No.7 Vikram was likely to give blow of axe
on the head of deceased Manoj and was intending to eliminate him.
Learned counsel submits that the applicants were on bail during trial.
3. Learned A.P.P. has strongly resisted both the applications on
the ground that there are injured eye witnesses to the incident and
there is clear evidence about formation of an unlawful assembly.
Learned A.P.P. submits that the trial court has convicted the
applicants and other accused persons with the aid of Section 149 of
I.P.C. Learned A.P.P. submits that the liability under Section 149 of
I.P.C. is constructive liability and the prosecution has proved that the
applicants were members of the unlawful assembly. In view of the
same, the applicants are also liable for the act of other members of
the assembly. Learned A.P.P. submits that apart from the ocular
evidence, there is also circumstantial evidence against the applicants
and they are not entitled to be released on bail.
4. We have carefully gone through the evidence of the injured
eye witnesses P.W. Apparao, P.W Birmal and P.W. Lahu.
::: Uploaded on - 17/03/2022 ::: Downloaded on - 18/03/2022 07:21:05 :::
cran694.22
-4-
5. Though there are allegations about formation of unlawful
assembly, however, it appears that a single blow had been given on
the head of deceased Manoj by accused No.7 Vikram. We have
carefully gone through the postmortem report. It appears that
deceased Manoj had sustained only one injury i.e. in the form of
CLW over occipital region with fracture of occipital bone. The cause
of death is also 'shock due to intracranial hemorrhage due to head
injury'. Deceased Manoj had not sustained any other injury. So far
as the injured eye witnesses are concerned, even though they have
sustained injuries, and particularly the injured eye witnesses P.W.
Lahu is concerned, though he has sustained fracture injury, however,
he has not ascribed any specific role to the present applicants. It is
not clear from his evidence as to which of the accused person/s has /
have caused injuries to him. It further appears that during the course
of quarrel, accused No.7 Vikram had given a blow of axe on the head
of deceased Manoj. Though there are allegations that accused No.7
Vikram had given a blow of axe on the leg of P.W. Lahu, however, he
has only sustained simple injury on his leg. The applicants before us
were on bail during trial. Thus, considering the entire evidence as
discussed above, we are inclined to release the applicants on bail by
suspending the substantive part of the sentence to their extent.
Hence, we proceed to pass the following order:-
::: Uploaded on - 17/03/2022 ::: Downloaded on - 18/03/2022 07:21:05 :::
cran694.22
-5-
ORDER
I) Criminal application No. 695 of 2022 (Sachin s/o Vikram Yele
and another v. The State of Maharashtra) and criminal
application No. 694 of 2022 (Ankush s/o Somnath Yele v. The
State of Maharashtra) are hereby allowed.
II) Pending criminal appeal No. 145 of 2022 and criminal appeal
no. 146 of 2022, the substantive part of the sentence passed
against the applicants in criminal application no. 695 of 2022
and criminal application no. 694 of 2022, vide judgment and
order of conviction dated 8.2.2022 passed by the Additional
Sessions Judge, Bhoom, District Osmanabad in Sessions
Case No. 8 of 2019 is hereby suspended till disposal of the
appeals and till then, applicant no.1 original accused no.3
Sachin s/o Vikram Yele, applicant no.2 original accused no.4
Tukaram s/o Vikram Yele in criminal application no. 695 of
2022 and the applicant original accused no.9 Ankush s/o
Somnath Yele in criminal application no. 694 of 2022 be
released on bail by furnishing personal bond of Rs.20,000/-
each with one solvent surety each of the like amount.
III. Both the criminal applications are accordingly disposed of.
(SANDIPKUMAR. C. MORE, J.) (V. K. JADHAV, J.)
rlj/
