JUDGMENT :

L. NAGESWARA RAO, J.

Leave granted.

1. The issue that arises in these Appeals is whether the death penalty imposed on the Appellant is disproportionate to the crime committed by him.

2. At 20.45 hrs on 21.06.2010, Hanmant Sheshrau Shirsat gave a statement in the Miraj Rural Police Station that his daughter who was 9 years old and studying in the 4th standard at Shri Samarth Ashram School, Bedag was missing since 10.00 am. He stated that he could not find his daughter when he went to the school to bring her home at 5.15 pm on that day. He was informed by her class teacher that his daughter did not come to school. Shirsat started searching for his missing daughter. Akash (PW-4), a boy residing behind Marguaai Temple and his sister Pooja gave information that Shirsat’s daughter was taken by a person wearing black pant and black shirt to the sugarcane field ahead of Odya village. Shirsat accompanied the police in the search for his daughter in the sugarcane field where they found her school record book. On further inquires made in the village, Sidram Sakharam Khade (PW-13) who owns a provision store at Bedag informed that he spotted a person wearing black clothes who came to his