SANJAY @ BABLO BECHARBHAI THAKORE Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the original accused who has been convicted for the offence of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Vadodara by his impugned judgement dated 27.04.2012 in Sessions Case No. 59 of 2011.

(2.) Briefly stated the prosecution version was that the accused Sanjay alias Bablo Becharbhai Thakore had remarried his sister-in-law Rekhaben. The deceased Anil Ishwardayalsingh Rajput had illicit relations with Rekhaben. When the accused came to know about it, he took up a quarrel with the deceased at about 09.15 in the morning near the main gate of heavy water colony at Surat. The accused chased the deceased Anil with an axe in the hand and assaulted him with the said weapon causing his death. A charge to this effect was framed at Ex. 6.

(3.) We may record the gist of evidence. Shantaben Shankarbhai Vanzara, P.W. 1, Ex. 8, the first informant and also an eye witness turned hostile and did not support the prosecution case as recorded in her FIR Ex. 9 in which she had attributed to the accused the fatal blow on the deceased. She had also given the background of the quarrel as being the illicit relations of the deceased with the wife of the accused. According to her statement, on the date of the incident, the accused had chased the deceased and then gave the blow with the axe. This witness did, however, refer to seeing Anil in seriously injured condition outside her hut.