TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has upheld the conviction of Dattaram alias Premanand Gawas and maintained his life sentence for murdering a woman at Pernem in November 2007.
The division bench of Justices A P Lavande and R P Sondur-Baldota upheld his conviction under sections 302 (murder) and 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code that was ordered by the Sessions Court on March 29, 2010 read with the order dated April 19, 2010. The accused had appealed against his conviction before the High Court.
The Sessions Court had sentenced him to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 under section 302 of IPC for murdering Darshana. He also had to undergo five years imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 5,000 under Section 392 of IPC.
The prosecution had examined 28 witnesses during the trial out of which seven were panch witnesses and four were police witnesses. Since there were no eye witnesses, the entire case of the prosecution rested on circumstantial evidence. Public prosecutor S R Rivonkar appeared on behalf of the State.
As per the case, the accused had killed the victim near a river half-a-kilometer from her residence, hid her body in the bushes and robbed her of gold ornaments.
“…we are satisfied that the prosecution has brought home the guilt of the appellant by establishing every circumstance pointing to his guilt. The sentence awarded to him is also proper considering the facts of the case. Hence, the appeal is dismissed,” the bench ordered.
