Dismissed¶26

Mohammad Danish Jahid Husain v. the State of Mah. Thr. Pso, Ps Shegaon, Tq. Shegaon, Dist. Buldhana.

Bombay HC12 Nov 2025APPA/921/2025

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Suspension of sentence; Section 389 CrPC; fair chances of acquittal test; Omprakash Sahni v. Jai Shankar Chaudhary, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 551 (relied on); life imprisonment for murder; knife assault at tea centre; PW-3 eyewitness; three assailants with premeditation; nineteen ante-mortem injuries; carotid vessel rupture, haemorrhagic shock; alleged instigation by deceased over appellant's sister rejected as justification; APPA No. 921 of 2025; Criminal Appeal No. 416 of 2023; Sessions Case No. 39/2018; Bombay High Court Nagpur Bench.

What did the court decide?

No relief to the applicant — suspension of the life sentence refused; Criminal Appeal No. 416 of 2023 to be heard finally, listed for the week commencing from 1st December, 2025. ¶26

Mohammad Danish Jahid Husain vs the State of Mah. Thr. Pso, Ps Shegaon, Tq. Shegaon, Dist. Buldhana. — Bombay HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

No relief to the applicant — suspension of the life sentence refused; Criminal Appeal No. 416 of 2023 to be heard finally, listed for the week commencing from 1st December, 2025.

¶26

Issue for consideration

Whether the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on the applicant/appellant should be suspended pending disposal of Criminal Appeal No. 416 of 2023, tested by whether the convict has fair chances of acquittal. +1 more

¶12

Court's answer

Adopting the test laid down in Omprakash Sahni (relied on by Learned APP), the court is under an obligation to see whether the prosecution case, as accepted by the trial court, gives the convict a fair chance of acquittal; if the answer is in the affirmative, the sentence should be suspended.

¶23

Ratio / Principle

While the appellant's annoyance at the deceased's conduct may be justified, such annoyance cannot permit him to take the law into his hands; the court answers this in the negative.

¶19

Key takeaways

On applying the fair-chances-of-acquittal test to the present case, the court finds there are no fair chances of acquittal; rather the evidence (PW-3 eyewitness account, nineteen ante-mortem injuries, death from haemorrhagic shock due to carotid vessel rupture, apparent premeditation) indicates otherwise.ratio¶24
There being no merit in the application for suspension of sentence, the application is rejected.ratio¶26

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench (Anil L. Pansare and Raj D. Wakode, JJ.; 12-11-2025), Criminal Application (APPA) No. 921 of 2025 in Criminal Appeal No. 416 of 2023, Mohammed Danish Jahid Husain v. The State of Maharashtra: Application to suspend the sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the Sessions Court, Khamgaon (judgment/order dt. 18-05-2023 in Sessions Case No. 39/2018) REJECTED. Relying on Omprakash Sahni v. Jai Shankar Chaudhary [2023 SCC OnLine SC 551], the Bench held that suspension hinges on whether the convict has fair chances of acquittal, looking for something palpable/gross rather than re-appreciating evidence at the stage of Section 389 CrPC. Finding no fair chances of acquittal — PW-3, at whose tea centre the incident occurred, saw the appellant and two others arrive with premeditation, snatch the deceased's mobile, catch his collar, slap him and stab him with a knife; post-mortem (PW-9) showed nineteen ante-mortem injuries, fracture of the 3rd rib and lung rupture, death from haemorrhagic shock due to carotid vessel rupture — and holding that justified annoyance at the deceased's alleged conduct towards the appellant's sister cannot permit taking the law into one's hands, the court dismissed the application. The appellant is in jail since 12-05-2018; the appeal was listed for final hearing in the week commencing 01-12-2025.

¶1

934.APPA.921.2025.odt 1/4

¶2

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR .

¶3

CRIMINAL APPLICATION (APPA) NO. 921 OF 2025 IN

¶4

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 416 OF 2023

¶5

Mohammed Danish Jahid Husain

¶6

Vs.

¶7

The State of Maharashtra, through PSO, PS Shegaon, Dist. Buldhana

¶8

Office Notes, Office Memoramda of Coram,__________________________________________________________________________ appearances, Court's orders of directions Court's or Judge's orders. and Registrar's Orders.

¶9

Mr. Tabish Mooman, Advocate with Mr. M.R. Pande, Advocate for the Applicant/Appellant.

¶10

Mr. A.B. Badar, APP for the Respondent/State.

¶11

CORAM : ANIL L. PANSARE AND RAJ D. WAKODE, JJ. DATE : 12th NOVEMBER, 2025.

¶12

The application has been filed to suspend the sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the Sessions Court, Khamgaon, Dist. Buldhana, vide judgment and order dated 18^th May, 2023 in Sessions Case No.39/2018.

¶13

With the assistance of both the sides, we have gone through the relevant documents. The star witness is PW-3. He runs a tea centre where the incident occurred. The deceased had been to his tea centre. He was having tea. At that time, three persons came in. One of them i.e. the appellant snatched his mobile, caught hold of his collar, and asked him to come out. He slapped him. The appellant then took out knife and assaulted the deceased, who succumbed to the injuries.

¶14

The post-mortem report and the testimony of the doctor who conducted it (PW-9) show that there were as many

¶15

934.APPA.921.2025.odt 2/4

¶16

as nineteen injuries on the person of the deceased. All the injuries were ante-mortem. The examination of internal injuries indicates fracture of 3^rd rib right side due to stab injury, and rupture of right side of lung. The cause of death is haemorrhagic shock due to carotid vessel rupture due to multiple injury to neck region.

¶17

Thus, it appears that the deceased was mercilessly beaten by the appellant. The weapon used is knife. The evidence of PW-3 indicates that the appellant and two others came at tea centre with premeditation.

¶18

The counsel for the appellant submits that the deceased had instigated the appellant to commit a crime, and therefore, it is not a cold-blooded murder. The deceased had a bad eye on the appellant’s sister, which resulted into quarrel between the two.

¶19

Thus, it appears that the appellant was annoyed with the conduct of the deceased. As such, the annoyance is justified, the question, however, is whether such annoyance will permit appellant to take the law in his hand. The answer is certainly in the negative.

¶20

Learned APP, on the point of suspension of sentence, has relied upon the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Omprakash Sahni Vs. Jai Shankar Chaudhary and Anr. [2023 SCC OnLine SC 551] , wherein, the Court, after taking note of the settled principles of law, held thus:

¶21

934.APPA.921.2025.odt 3/4

¶22

“33. Bearing in mind the aforesaid principles of law, the endeavour on the part of the Court, therefore, should be to see as to whether the case presented by the prosecution and accepted by the Trial Court can be said to be a case in which, ultimately the convict stands for fair chances of acquittal. If the answer to the above said question is to be in the affirmative, as a necessary corollary, we shall have to say that, if ultimately the convict appears to be entitled to have an acquittal at the hands of this Court, he should not be kept behind the bars for a pretty long time till the conclusion of the appeal, which usually take very long for decision and disposal. However, while undertaking the exercise to ascertain whether the convict has fair chances of acquittal, what is to be looked into is something palpable. To put it in other words, something which is very apparent or gross on the face of the record, on the basis of which, the Court can arrive at a prima facie satisfaction that the conviction may not be sustainable. The Appellate Court should not reappreciate the evidence at the stage of Section 389 of the CrPC and try to pick up few lacunas or loopholes here or there in the case of the prosecution. Such would not be a correct approach.”

¶23

Thus, the Court is under an obligation to see whether the case presented by the prosecution and accepted by the trial Court can be said to be a case in which ultimately the convict stands for a fair chance of acquittal. If the answer is in the affirmative, the sentence should be suspended.

¶24

In the present case, for the reasons stated above, we do not find that there are fair chances of acquittal, rather the evidence indicates otherwise.

¶25

934.APPA.921.2025.odt 4/4

¶26

That being so, there is no merit in the application. The same is accordingly rejected.

¶27

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 416 OF 2023

¶28

We are informed that the appellant is in jail since 12^th May, 2018. The paper book is ready. We are, therefore, inclined to hear the appeal finally.

¶29

List the appeal for final hearing in the week commencing from 1^st December, 2025.

¶30

( RAJ. D. WAKODE, J.) (ANIL L. PANSARE, J.)

¶31

Vijaykumar

¶32

Signed by: Mr. Vijay Kumar Designation: PA To Honourable Judge Date: 12/11/2025 19:31:23

Mohammad Danish Jahid Husain v. the State of Mah. Thr. Pso, Ps Shegaon, Tq. Shegaon, Dist. Buldhana.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Mohammad Danish Jahid Husain v. the State of Mah. Thr. Pso, Ps Shegaon, Tq. Shegaon, Dist. Buldhana.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Why is it important?

What the court decided

Issues for consideration

Cases cited

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Procedural history

Parties & counsel

Coram

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