VANSHA LAKAMA GANGAD Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal filed under section 374 of the Code of Crimi-nal Procedure is directed against an order of conviction and sentence passed in Sessions Case No. 76 of 1999 by the learned Addi-tional Sessions Judge at Palghar District Thane on 27th December, 2001. The appel-lant-accused came to be convicted for the offences punishable under sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life on the first count and rigorous imprisonment for one year on the second count. During the pendency of this appeal, the appellant-ac-cused is undergoing the sentence.

(2.) As per the prosecution case, the ap-pellant is the nephew (Brother's son) of Malji Gangad (PW 5) and Malji Gangad is the hus-band of the deceased Bhiklibai and they are residents of village Modgaon- Paraspada in Dahanu tahsil of Thane district. There was some dispute between the accused and his brother Mahadya and he tried to assault Mahadya with an axe which was snatched by the intervention of PW 5 Malji Gangad and his wife. The dispute was then referred to the community panchayat and was set-tled. However, his axe which was with the deceased was not returned to the appellant despite his demand for the same. On 17th May, 1999 at about 5.30 p.m. the deceased Bhiklibai along with her two grand-children Bharat and Vijay (PW 6) had gone to the neighbouring village Kurze to hand over one of her bullocks for agricultural operations and the accused also had followed them. While they were returning from village Kurze and had returned to their village, the accused asked the children to go home and he would follow them along with the deceased. At about 8 p.m. PW 2 Mahadya Randye noticed that in the agricultural land of Natthya a lady had fallen on the road and one man was sitting near her. He therefore went to the house of PW 1 Vishnu Baraf and informed him. Both of them came to the spot and noticed that the lady was still lying on road and the ac-cused was sitting near her. They went back to the house of Valji Gangad PW 5 and in-quired whether Bhiklibai had returned. They also informed him that she was seen lying on road in Natthya's agricultural land. Hence, all the three went back to the spot and did not notice either Bhiklibai or the accused. This was after 9 p.m. and on the next day when they started searching for Bhilkibai her dead body was found in the nearby Kurze lake which is at a distance of about one kilo-metre from Modgaon-Paraspada. The dead body was recovered by the police and sent for post-mortem on 18th May, 2000 to Dr. Rustom Mody PW 8. It was noticed that Bhiklibai died a homicidal death and PW 1 Vishnu Baraf filed a complaint which came to be registered as the F.I.R. at 4 p.m with Kasa Police Station (Exhibit 7). Immediately thereafter, the accused was taken in custody on registration of C.R. No. 40 of 1999. Clothes of the deceased as well as the accused along with some pieces of soil from the spot were sent for chemical analysis and the C.A. Re-ports at Exhibits 21 and 22 came to be re-ceived. It appears that the blood group of the deceased was T3'.

(3.) The prosecution case is entirely based on the circumstantial evidence and in sup-port of its charge against the accused, the prosecution examined in all 8 witnesses. PW 3 Radkya Dhude and PW 4 Sony Sahnivar are the panch witnesses. The panchanama at Exhibit 12 which has been proved through the evidence of PW 3 Radkya Dhude went to show that the place of occurrence is the road passing through the agricultural land of Natthya and there were marks of dragging a human body. At a distance of about 50 feet away from the place of the incident, the sari of the deceased was recovered and at a stretch of 50 feet blood marks were also no-ticed. The police party along with the wit-nesses proceeded further following the drag-ging marks with blood stains and ultimately they found the dead body of the deceased was floating in the Kurje lake water. The de-ceased did not have sari on her person. The inquest panchanama at Exhibit 11 was drawn and the dead body was sent for post-mortem examination.