ARJUN PAWAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE prosecution version, on the basis of which respondent No.2, along with various other persons, was chargesheeted for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 324 and 337 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'IPC') goes somewhat like this: Respondent No.2 Baliram Junghare (A-5) and all other accused persons were the residents of Village Hatna, Tehsil Manora, District Washim (Maharashtra). In their village, Panchayat elections were held sometime in the month of November, 1992. Two political factions, one led by Khandusing (A-1) and other by Shriram (deceased) were in the fray who had fielded their respective candidates. Party led by Khandusing emerged victorious and was elected whereas candidates set up by Shriram were vanquished in the said elections. Roughly 3-4 months thereafter i.e. 07.03.1993 is the date when the incident in question occurred. It so happened that on that day at about 7:30 p.m. at Village Hatna, Khandusing was sitting under a Neem tree on Ota. The deceased Shriram and few other persons were sitting in front of the house of one Nagorao Pawar. At that time, respondent No.2 Baliram along with Shankar, Bhurasing, Duryodhon, Kishor, Janardhan, Baliram Chavan, Pralhad Pawar, Vitthal Mankute, Sitaram and Vasanta came there. They were armed with sticks and stones. Seeing them, Shriram asked accused Khandusing as to what had happened. Khandusing took a stick from the hand of one of the accused and assaulted Shriram on the head i.e. vital part of his body, on account of which Shriram sustained bleeding injury. Thereafter, respondent No.2-Baliram assaulted Shriram by his stick on his head due to which Shriram fell down and blood started oozing profusely. All other accused persons also assaulted Shriram with sticks and stones. Thereafter, eye-witnesses Ulhas, Durgadas and Prakash along with others made an attempt to intervene and rescue Shriram. In the process, these witnesses also received injuries. The assembly pelted stones at the house of Durgadas. After accomplishing their job in this manner, all the accused persons fled from the spot. The prosecution further alleged that Shriram (father of the appellant herein) was referred to the hospital at Manora. From there he was referred to District Civil Hospital, Akola. After receiving serious and grievous injuries, Shriram had gone into coma and did not recover therefrom. He succumbed to the injuries on 08.03.1993 at 07:15 a.m. The police prepared the Inquest report of the dead body of Shriram on 08.03.1993 at 09:05 a.m. in the presence of the witnesses and found various injuries on the body of the deceased Shriram which were recorded in the Inquest report. Relevant portion thereof is reproduced below:

(2.) POSTMORTEM on the body of Shriram was conducted on 08.03.1993 by Dr. Gulab Nikam (PW-7). On that basis, the Police registered C.R. No. 35/1993 under Sections 147, 148, 149 and 302 of IPC against the accused persons, 12 in number. After completing the investigation, challan was filed and these accused persons were chargesheeted for various offences as mentioned earlier. After the trial, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Washim, vide his judgment and order dated 11.09.1998 convicted Khandusing and respondent No.2 Baliram for offences punishable under Sections 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC, resulting in the imposition of sentence of imprisonment for life, and a fine of Rs.1,000/- each. They were acquitted of the rest of the charges. Insofar as other 10 accused persons are concerned, they got clean acquittal in all the charges.

(3.) FEELING aggrieved by their conviction, Khandusing and Baliram (respondent No.2) filed the appeal in the High Court. However, Khandusing died during the pendency of the appeal. Thus, the appeal survived only at the instance of respondent No.2. The appeal came up for final arguments and after hearing the counsel for the parties, the High Court has rendered the impugned judgment dated 25.07.2014 wherein it is held that the genesis of the incident has not been established on record by credible and unimpeachable evidence. Thus, allowing the appeal of respondent No.2, conviction has been set aside, giving the benefit of doubt to him. Son of the deceased Shriram has felt aggrieved by that judgment and, therefore, he has challenged the veracity and legality thereof by filing the special leave petition. Leave was granted and the matter heard finally at the time of granting leave, on the insistence of the counsel for the parties.