TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Bombay High Court at Goa has confirmed the conviction of the accused in the sensational Dr Shrikant Verenkar murder case at Vasco while setting aside the death sentence awarded to him by the sessions court.
In an order by Justice A P Lavande, and Justice U V Bakre the court passed the order dismissing Criminal Appeals No. 37/2007, 75/2007 and 76/2007 and setting aside the death sentence imposed on Ryan “for offences punishable under Sections 120B and 302 (murder) of IPC. However, he has been held guilty for the offences punishable under those sections and is to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs 20,000 or in default, to be imprisoned for a further period of two months. The fine amount “if recovered” is to be paid to Sarika and her mother, Jaimini.
The sentences imposed on all accused (Francisco alias Francis Gregorio Paul D’Sa, Rajendra alias Rajan Singh and Sachin Parab) for all the offences, are maintained and sentences are to run concurrently.
The order says that the Sessions Judge had imposed a death sentence on the accused No. 1- Ryan Fernandes for murder. But A Dessai, Special Public Prosecutor had made a statement that the prosecution would not insist on death sentence imposed on accused No. 1. He had, as far back as on 25 July 2011, submitted that the case of the accused No. 1 did not fall within the term ‘rarest of rare’ as held by the Supreme Court in various cases and as such, the State would not press for confirmation of death sentence but would insist on conviction of the accused.
“In our view, learned Sessions Judge was not justified in imposing death sentence on the accused No. 1, for the offences punishable under Section 302 of IPC. In our view, the reasons given by learned Sessions Judge for imposing death sentence on the accused No. 1, are unsustainable in law. It is not the case of the prosecution that the accused No. 1 has criminal record. The accused No. 1 was aged about 23 at the time of commission of offence. The evidence on record clearly suggests that the accused No. 1 had strong grudge against the deceased since Prosecution Witness (PW) 54-Sarika, the wife of the accused No. 1, was refusing to return to him.”
Stating that no doubt, the murder of the deceased was pre-planned and without any provocation, the order said “this fact by itself would not be sufficient to hold that sentence of imprisonment for life would be inadequate. Thus, upon drawing the balance-sheet of the aggravated and mitigating circumstances, in our view, death sentence imposed on the accused No. 1, deserves to be set aside by substituting the same with life imprisonment.”
It may be recalled that on 17 January 2005 at 6.15 hours, at Mangor Hill, Vasco, all the accused after hatching a criminal conspiracy, intentionally or knowingly caused murder of Dr Shrikant Verenkar, aged 60 years and so committed offence punishable under Section 302, IPC. “Secondly, all the accused abducted Dr Verenkar with intention of causing to be secretly and wrongfully confined and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 365 of IPC. Thirdly, all the accused knowingly or having reasons to believe that the offence, namely the offence under Section 302 of IPC has been committed, caused certain evidence, namely the dead body of said Dr Verenkar to disappear and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 201 of IPC. Fourthly, all the accused agreed with each other to do an illegal act, namely to murder the said Dr Verenkar and in pursuance of the said agreement, committed the offence of murder, punishable with death or imprisonment for life, punishable under Section 120B of IPC. PW.1 Pratham Gadagkar (original accused No. 5), who was charged along with other four accused for the aforesaid offences, was granted pardon by the learned Sessions Judge and was examined as prosecution witness.
Charge was framed on 24/8/2005 with all the accused including Pratham (the approver) pleading not guilty. Thereafter, on the same day, order was passed by the Sessions Judge granting pardon to the accused No. 5, in terms of Section 307 of CrPC. The order dated 24th August 2005 of pardon was challenged by accused No. 1 before this Court. This Court by order dated 22nd December 2005 dismissed the said Criminal Revision Application No. 23 of 2005. The contention that the accused No 5 had played fraud on the learned Sessions Judge in order to obtain tender of pardon, was found to be without any merits.
