FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has upheld verdict of the trial court that sentenced two persons to life imprisonment in the 2013 double murder at Merces.
The court’s order comes after concluding final hearing into the infamous case that occurred at Merces and Anmod Ghat where the accused had also attempted to kill the deceased couple’s infants.
The prosecution, during the hearing, had sought to enhance convict Osban Fernandes and Ramesh Bagve’s life imprisonment sentence to death penalty.
The Children’s Court had last year convicted Fernandes of Merces and Bagve from Sindhudurg and awarded them life sentences finding them guilty on four counts. The case dates back to May 2013, in which a husband-wife duo was murdered by two men in what was one of the most horrific crimes in recent memory.
The incident, which unfolded after the minor survivor spilled the beans to a passerby and subsequently to the police, had sent shockwaves through the State. The victims, deceased husband (40), wife (35); and two minor survivors, son (8) and daughter (5) were all members of a Kolhapur native family.
While Fernandes is a contractor who owns a fleet of trucks, JCB (excavator) and has many labourers working under him; Bagve and the deceased victims were among the labourers.
