BHIMRAO ANNA INGAWALE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal by special leave is directed against a judgment dated 27th/28th of September, 1977, of the High Court of Maharashtra upholding the conviction of the six appellants recorded by the learned Sessions Judge for two offences under Section 302 read with Section 149 and of one under Section 148 of the Indian Penal Code, the sentence awarded being imprisonment for life on each of the first two counts and of rigorous imprisonment for one year on the third with a direction that the sentences shall run concurrently.

(2.) CERTAIN facts are not in dispute and may be stated at the outset. The occurrence took place on the 11th of November, 1974, in village Kole to which all the appellants except Khashaba (appellant No.5) belong. Appellants Nos. 1 to 4 and 6 live jointly in a house which abuts on a road 14 feet wide. Opposite that house lies the one belonging to the two unfortunate persons who lost their lives as a result of the occurrence which is said to have taken place in consequence of inimical relations between the accused and the opposite party. The waste water emanating from the house of appellant No.1 had been flowing towards the other side of the road and seeping into the western wall of the house of the deceased. This was one of the factors leading to animosity between the parties, another being that the family of the deceased had earlier sold to a third person some land which they wanted to re-purchase but were thwarted in their design by the accused who were instigating the vendee not to resell the land to the deceased.

(3.) 24 witnesses were examined at the trial in support of the prosecution case. They included five eye-witnesses, namely, Lakshmi PW-10, Droupadi PW-11, Bhimrao PW-12, Uttam PW-13 and Abasaheb PW-19, all of whom gave substantially the same version of the occurrence as has been set out above. Bhimrao Kadam PW-20 deposed that at about noon on the fateful day he was returning home from his fields which lie only at a distance of about 250 feet from the houses of the parties, when he found appellants Nos. 2, 3, and 4 exchanging abuses with the two deceased who were armed with sticks. According to the witness he disarmed the deceased and threw away the sticks on to the roof of their house. The witness claimed to have gone away after advising both the parties to settle their disputes amicably. He then testified to having met Bhimrao PW-12. Uttam PW-13 and their brother Jayakar when he returned to his field the same day. He further stated that they were running but were not armed. The rest of his testimony-in-chief may be summarised thus :