SSK/904 1 appa 527.11 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.527 OF 2011 IN CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.766 OF 2007 Parubai Deepak Shelar ....Petitioner Versus The State of Maharashtra ...Respondent Mr. D. G. Khamkar, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. D. P. Adsul, APP for the State. CORAM : SMT. RANJANA DESAI & RANJIT MORE, JJ. DATED : 19th JULY, 2011. P.C.: The applicant along with two others was tried by the Sessions Court, Pune in Sessions Case No. 327 of 2006 for offences punishable under Sections 302,324, 323, 504 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The applicant is original accused no.1. Original accused no.2 is her husband and original accused no.3 is her son. The case of the prosecution is that the applicant along with the other accused committed murder of Sunil Raju Shetty, husband of PW-1 – Laxmibai. By the judgment & order impugned in the appeal, the applicant along with other accused has been convicted under Sections 302,324, 323, 504 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code. All the accused have been sentenced to imprisonment for life. Admittedly, the applicant was on bail throughout the trial. After conviction, she was taken in custody and has been in jail since then. We are informed that she is inside the jail for about five years as of today. The applicant had preferred one bail application which was withdrawn by her counsel. SSK/904 2 appa 527.11 2. Admittedly, there are two eye-witnesses i.e. PW-1- Laxmibai and PW-4 – Nazia. So far as PW-1 – Laxmibai is concerned, she has not assigned any specific role to the applicant. She has clearly stated that accused-Sachin i.e. applicant’s son dealt a blow with a bat on the head of the deceased and accused-Deepak – applicant’s husband dealt kick blow on leg of the deceased. PW-4-Nazia, another eye-witness has also not assigned any specific role to the applicant. She has made a general statement that the applicant and other two accused assaulted the deceased with sticks and bat. It is pertinent to note that she has stated that accused- Sachin was holding a bat which prima-facie corroborates PW-Laxmibai. Cause of the death as per the post-mortem notes is stated to be head injury. Prima-facie, it appears that the fatal blow was not dealt by the applicant. Considering the fact that the applicant is a lady who was on bail during trial and has been in jail for five years, we think that she should be released on bail. Her earlier bail application was withdrawn on 14th November, 2008. Passage of time itself is a change in the circumstances. We, therefore, pass the following order : 1. The applicant-Parubai Deepak Shelar is ordered to be released on bail in the sum of Rs.10,000/- with one or two sureties to make up the amount. 2. The criminal application is accordingly disposed of. (RANJIT MORE, J.) (SMT. RANJANA DESAI, J.)