JUDGMENT :

Milind N. Jadhav, J.

1. This is an appeal against conviction of the Appellant by the Trial Court. The learned Sessions Judge, Mangaon, District Raigad, by judgment and order dated 28.11.2018, has convicted Shri Ganesh Bhagya Mandavkar (Appellant -originally Accused No. 1) and Mangesh Pandu Jadhav (originally Accused No. 2) of the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, (for short: “IPC”) read with Section 34 IPC. Under Section 235 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (for short: “CrPC”), the learned Sessions Judge has sentenced the accused to suffer life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 15,000.00 and in the case of default in the payment of the fine, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year each.

2. We are informed across the bar by the learned Public Prosecutor that Accused No. 2 expired during the pendency of the appeal. The present appeal is preferred by the original Accused No. 1. For the sake of convenience, the original Accused No. 1 i.e., Ganesh Bhagya Mandavkar shall be referred to as "Appellant".

3. The incident took place on 07.02.2017. The case of the Prosecution is that on 07.02.2017 at about 3:30 PM, Shri Narayan Kis