SHRIPATRAO Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has been convicted under Sections 302 and 498A, IPC, for causing death of his wife by pouring kerosene over her body and setting her ablaze. The High Court dismissed the appeal as it did not find any good reason to interfere with the judgment of the trial Court.

(2.) We have gone through the evidence and we find that all the eight dying declarations are almost consistent. One of them was made to Doctor H.S. Maharaj (P.W. 1) to whom she was taken for treatment. He has clearly deposed that soon after Meena was admitted in the hospital at 7.30 a.m., she had told him that her husband had poured kerosene on her clothes and set her ablaze. This was told to the doctor when he had tried to ascertain from her how she had received burns. The doctor made a note of it in the case papers (Ex. 14). The evidence of Dr. Maharaj thus receives support from contemporaneous document. The doctor had no reason to falsely depose against the accused or to prepare false case papers.

(3.) The doctor has further stated that he had informed Police Sub-Inspector of Umri Police station that Meena was brought to the hospital with burns at 7.20 a.m. and thereafter had also written a letter (Ex. 13) to the P.S.I, for getting her dying declaration recorded. The said letter (Ex. 13) was written at 8.50 a.m. The police after receiving the same had forwarded the same to the Special Executive Magistrate, Shri Sharma (P.W. 8) who received it at 10 a.m. Mr. Sharma had then proceeded to Umri dispensary and after ascertaining fitness of Meena from Dr. Maharaj (P.W. 1) and also after ascertaining it himself had recorded her dying declaration (Ex. 32). In his cross-examination, he admitted that the said dying declaration was not in his hand but in fact it was written by one constable as it was difficult to write with his trembling hand. Merely because that fact is not mentioned in the dying declaration it cannot be regarded as suspicious. It bears signature of the doctor and also that of the Executive Magistrate. It is also true as contended by the learned counsel for the appellant that no time is mentioned in the said dying declaration. That cannot also affect genuineness of the said dying declaration as there is nothing to show that the Executive Magistrate was not telling the truth. The Executive Magistrate had received the requisition at 10.00 a.m. and Meena was shifted at 11.00 a.m. from Umri to Civil Hospital at Nanded. Therefore, her statement was recorded between 10.00 and 11.00 a.m.