APPA. 1585-11 - 1 - VPH IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION No. 1585 OF 2011 IN CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1538 OF 2011 Sunny @ Ajinkya J. Kabade ... Applicant (Orig. Accused No.2) Vs. The State of Maharashtra & Anr. ... Respondents Mr. Kuldeep S. Patil, for the Applicant. Mr. P. S. Hingorani, APP for the Respondent. CORAM : V. M. KANADE, & M. L. TAHALIYANI, JJ. DATE : DECEMBER 22, 2011 PC: 1. Heard the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the applicant and the learned APP for the respondent-State. The appellant/accused is convicted for the offence punishable under S. 302 read with S. 34 of the I. P. Code and is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life. 2. The prosecution case is that deceased was a drug peddler. PW 3 Anant Kamat, PW 4 Avinash Rabbe along with Prathamesh were the eye witnesses of the alleged incident. According to the prosecution, four unknown persons came there and assaulted the deceased with knives and ran away. Initially, the prosecution arrested one Akshay. Present applicant was arrested on 14-10-2008. The trial APPA. 1585-11 - 2 - court convicted the applicant on the basis of evidence of the eye witnesses and the other evidence on record. 3. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the applicant that witnesses were kept in custody for 2-3 days and their statements were recorded two days thereafter. It is submitted that Akshay who was prime suspect in this case was discharged. It is submitted that name of the applicant is not mentioned in the FIR and there is no material to show as to who assaulted the deceased, nor the same was revealed during the investigation. 4. The learned APP for the respondent-State opposed the application for bail and submitted that there are two eye witnesses who had identified the applicant in the identification parade and thus, there is sufficient material on record against the applicant. 5. In our view, though there are two eye witnesses, they were admittedly in police custody for 2-3 days and thereafter they were released, their statements were recorded. Name of the applicant is not disclosed during the investigation. This being the position, applicant deserves to be released on bail. 6. The applicant be released on bail, on execution of P. R. bond in the sum of Rs. 10,000/- with one or two sureties in the like amount. He shall report to the Mulund Police Station once in a month. [M. L. TAHALIYANI, J.] [ V. M. KANADE, J.]