THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa has allowed a criminal writ petition by a murder convict, permitting consideration for setting off his pre-trial custody period. The convict, Osban Lucas Fernandes, is currently serving life imprisonment in the 2013 case.
Fernandes, in his petition, sought the High Court’s inherent powers, requesting the set-off of the time he spent in detention as an undertrial in two First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against him for the same offence, as it also involved offences against minor children.
The accused was arrested on 14 May 2013 and remained in custody during his trial until his conviction on 30 April 2019. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined. In a separate FIR for murder, Fernandes was again convicted and sentenced to life. His appeals against both convictions were dismissed by the High Court.
In his fresh plea, Fernandes argued that in both judgements, the trial courts failed to address the provisions of Section 428 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which allows for the time spent in pre-trial detention to be set off against the final sentence. He stated that the CrPC was in force at the time before the implementation of the BNS.
“Notwithstanding the fact that in this case, both judgements of the Trial Courts not having addressed themselves to the question of set-off, the benefit of set-off under Section 468 of BNSS cannot be denied to the Petitioner. The Petitioner is held entitled to the set-off of the pre-trial custody period, which shall be considered at the relevant time when he becomes eligible,” the Division Bench of Justice M S Karnik and Justice Valmiki Menezes said while allowing the petition.
The Sessions Court had earlier sentenced Fernandes and his accomplice, Ramesh Bhagve, a resident of Sawantwadi, to life and fined them Rs 1.5 lakh each for the murder of a labourer named Shivaji, who was employed by Fernandes. They also killed his wife Sujata and strangled their minor children. The accused dumped the bodies at Anmod Ghat, but miraculously, the children survived and were rescued.
