Pune: The Bombay high court has suspended the life term sentence of two convicts in the 2014 murder of Mathadi Kamgar Sanghatana leader Prakash Laxman Chavan in Chinchwad and has granted them bail, pending the hearing of their criminal appeal against their conviction.A Pune sessions court on Nov 16, 2024, convicted and sentenced six accused people to life imprisonment in the case, including Amol Narayan Shinde and Prakashsing Chandrasing Bais. The duo filed an appeal against this through their lawyers Satyam Nimbalkar and Harshad Milind Pawar. The HC bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale observed on Dec 4 that Shinde underwent 10 years, 2 months and 9 days of imprisonment, and Bais has spent 10 years, 4 months and 16 days in jail, inclusive of pre-trial and post-trial incarceration. “In view of the pendency before the court, the chances of taking up the appeals preferred by the applicants in near future are remote,” the court said. Relying on Supreme Court rulings in Suleman v State of Uttar Pradesh and Saudan Singh v State of Uttar Pradesh, the court held that the applicants were entitled to bail during the pendency of the appeal. It added, “The substantive sentence of imprisonment imposed upon the applicants by the trial court is suspended and the applicants be released on bail on their furnishing PR bond in the sum of Rs 50,000/- each with 1 or 2 local sureties,” the bench said. It directed that the duo shall go to the Nigdi police station on the first Monday of every month for one year, and then on the first Monday every three months, on till the appeal is decided.
