RANGNATH BHAGWANTA PAWAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant (accused) aggrieved by the judgment and order of conviction and sentence, passed by the learned Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge-I, Jalgaon, in Sessions Case No.55 of 2007, dated 11.4.2008 has preferred the present appeal. By the impugned judgment, the appellant was convicted for the offense punishable under section 302 of Indian Penal Code ("IPC") and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.500/- in default of payment of fine, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one month. The appellant, however, was acquitted of the another charges under sections 498-A and 201 of IPC by the learned trial Judge.

(2.) The brief matrix of the prosecution case are as under :-

(3.) To bring home the guilt, prosecution examined seventeen witnesses. PW 1 is Police Patil Rohidas, who had informed Pachora Police about the dead bodies (Exhibit 9), PW 2 is Namdeo Patil, who took out the dead bodies out of the well along with others so also a panch (Exhibit 21), PW 3 is Pradip Eknath Pawar, a panch (Exhibit 15), who was declared hostile, PW 4 is Walmik Prabhakar More, panch of seizure of wedding card so also photographs of the victim and appellant (Exhibit 16), PW 5 is Kishor Dodhu More, a panch witness, who was declared hostile (Exhibit 19), PW 6 is Chudaman Raghunath Patil, another panch witness, who was also declared hostile and cross examined by the prosecution (Exhibit 20), PW 7 is Rambhau, uncle of deceased (Exhibit 21), PW 8 is Sheshrao, complainant and uncle of deceased (Exhibit 23), PW 9 is Narayan Govind Patil, an eye witness, (Exhibit 26), PW 10 is Nitin Shamrao Jathar, a panch witness to the disclosure made by the appellant to show the place where clothes of victims were hidden by him (Exhibit 29), PW 11 is Namdeo, cousin of deceased Savita (Exhibit 33), PW 12 is Daga Dhudku Pagare, a witness (Exhibit 35), PW 13 is Vijay Murlidhar Jagtap, a municipal hospital employee, who buried the dead bodies (Exhibit 37), PW 14 is Shamrao Mahadu Patil, who helped in taking out the dead bodies out of well (Exhibit 38), PW 15 is Sampat Sakharam Shinde, Investigating Officer - API, Police Station Vadod Bazar (Exhibit 40), PW 16 is ASI Rama Vasatkar, Police Head Constable Pachora Police Station, who has registered the A.D.case (Exhibit 42), and PW 17 is Rajendra Radhakurshna Lokhande, Investigating Officer and API of Accidental Case registered with Pachora Police Station Exhibit 50).