Before hearing the final arguments in the appeals filed by the convicts in the infamous Kopardi gang rape case challenging their death sentence, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday (September 22) said it will first visit the spot where the minor girl was allegedly ravished and killed by the convicts.

A division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Ashish Chavan have decided to visit the spot of the incident on October 2 so as to get a clarity about the said spot and particularly about the testimony of the prime witnesses in the case, who have testified about seeing the movements of the convicts from a distance.

"Depicting recourse to Section 310 of CrPC and since neither the prosecution nor the counsel for the Accused before us have raised any objection about the said course being adopted by this Court, limited for the purpose of appreciating the evidence that has been led before the Trial court, and so as to give this Court a fair insight into the spot of the incident as well as the surrounding peripheral circumstances, which have emerged before the Trial Court through various prosecution witnesses and documents placed on record, by consent of the respective counsel, we fix the date for local inspection as October 2, 2026," the bench recorded in the order. 

The bench is presently seized with the criminal appeals filed by the convicts - Santosh Bhawal and Nitin Bhailume, both challenging the death sentences awarded to them by a special POCSO court in Ahmednagar (now Ahilyanagar) district in November 2017, for raping and killing a minor girl. The third convict - Jitendra Shinde, died in jail in September 2023.

On Tuesday, when the matter was called out for hearing, the bench noted from the submissions of the prosecution and also the convicts that the spot and circumstances revolving around the spot, with the timelines were the focal point and thus opined that it was necessary to have a clear vision about the spot of the incident as well as the position where the witnesses (particularly two of them) on one hand and the other set of three separate witnesses were located and they deposed about some circumstances. The judges noted that their testimony has been accepted by the Trial Court to be relevant to the circumstances forming a chain, leading to the guilt of the accused persons.

"The spot of the actual incident, therefore, assumed great significance before the trial Judge, who has appreciated the evidence in light of the statement of the witnesses revolving around the periphery of the actual spot where the minor girl was ravished and found dead. It is very necessary to have a clarity about the relative distances from the view point of deposition of the witnesses so as to appreciate their testimony and to ascertain whether they could have noticed the movements of the accused persons," the bench said. 

The bench noted from the prosecution case that the cycle of the victim girl was found at a particular spot, whereas, her clothes were found exactly in the opposite field.

"Thus, it is very much necessary for us to get a clear idea about the spot and when we put some pertinent queries about the location of point D and the visibility of the road from point D, where one witness was seated and observed the Accused persons riding on a motorcycle and taking rounds, we were not given any clarity so that we could have appreciated the evidence of these witnesses. We intend to invoke the power under Section 310 of the CrPC. which permit visit and inspection of any place where an offence is alleged to have been committed or any other place, which in the opinion of the Court is necessary to view for the purpose of properly appreciating the evidence given at such inquiry or trial," the bench said. 

The bench has now adjourned the hearing post October 2, for the judges to visit the spot and after that the parties can continue with their arguments. 

Appearance:

Senior Advocate Trideep Pais along with Advocates Vijay Hiremath, Shreya Rastogi, Aditi Uniyal, Nadia Shalin, Jay Kholiya, Saloni Ambastha, Sakshi Jain, Abhinay S and Chinmay K appeared for the Appellants. 

Advocates Abhinandan Vagyani, Sumit Shinde, Nagraj Tarade and CM Lokesh represented the Victim's Family.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Chavan along with Advocates Dushyant Purekar, Manisha Devkar, Sonam Pardey, Asmi Desai, Siddhi Bhutada, Anjali Khapre and Shifa Ansari represents the Convicts in State's Appeal.

Chief Public Prosecutor Shishir Hiray, who is also the Special Public Prosecutor assisted by Additional Public Prosecutors Mahalakshmi Ganpathy, Sangita Shinde and Advocate Shubham Joshi represented State. 

Case Title: State of Maharashtra vs Jitendra @ Pappu Babulal Shinde (Confirmation Reference 7 of 2019)

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