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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 508 OF 2007

CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 508 OF 2007

CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 508 OF 2007

Prashant Ramchandra Joshi .... Applicant

Vs.

The State of Maharashtra .... Respondent

Mr. S.R. Chitnis, senior Counsel with Mrs. V.R.

Raje for the Applicant.

Mr. Y.S. Shinde, APP for the Respondent.

CORAM : J.H. BHATIA, J.,

CORAM : J.H. BHATIA, J.,

CORAM : J.H. BHATIA, J.,

DATE : 13TH MARCH, 2007

DATE : 13TH MARCH, 2007

DATE : 13TH MARCH, 2007

P.C.

1) Heard Mr. Chitnis, learned senior Counsel

for the applicant and Mr. Shinde, learned APP.

Perused the investigation papers. The applicant

who is accused no. 3 in Crime no. 250/2006

registered by Panvel Police Station for the

offences punishable under Sections 302, 201, 120-B

of Indian Penal Code seeks to be released on bail.

2) Prosecution case in brief is that, there

were some disputes between the deceased Navratan

Bafna and Dilip Thakur on one hand and accused Nos.

1 to 3 namely Sandip Patil, Babu Shaikh and

Prashant Joshi on the other hand. These three

accused persons hatched a conspiracy to kill

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Navratan Bafna and Dilip Thakur. For this purpose,

they collected chilly power, knife and nylon rope.

The accused persons called both the deceased at

Visava Hotel, Panvel and from there they took them

to Pargaon, Taluka Panvel under the pretext that

they would show some land to them for sale. They

took both the deceased near the Government

Agricultural Farm at village Pargaon. After that

they were taken to a lonely place. Accused no. 2

Babu Shaikh threw chilly powder into the eyes of

deceased Dilip Thakur and gave blow of knife on his

person. Accused No. 3 Prashant Joshi, who is the

present applicant, also threw chilly powder into

the eyes of Navratan Bafna and gave him fist blows.

Thereafter accused no. 1 Sandip Patil and accused

no. 3 Prashant Joshi strangulated said Navratan

with nylon rope. All the three accused persons

buried both the dead bodies and left Maruti Car of

deceased Navratan Bafna near Kharghar bridge by the

side of road. They burnt the clothes on their

persons at the time of the offence with intention

to cause disappearance of the evidence.

3) Initially there was a missing report and

during the investigation on that report accused

Sandip Patil came to be arrested. On the basis of

information given by Sandip Patil, both the dead

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bodies were recovered. Mobile hand-set of deceased

Navratan Bafna was taken away by the present

applicant Prashant. On the basis of information

given by the present applicant