RAHUL BABURAO PAWAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these Appeals are directed against the order of conviction and sentence passed in Sessions Case No.300 of 2000 by the learned Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge at Karad on 4/12/ 2002. The appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 1347 of 2002 (accused no. 1) has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC and sentenced to suffer life imprisonment. He has also been convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 326, 324, 323 and 341 of IPC whereas the appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 1348 (accused no.2) has been convicted for the offences punishable under Section 326 read with Section 34, Sections 324, 323 and 341 of IPC. The maximum sentence he has been awarded is of seven years RI and fine of Rs.1000/- for the offence punishable under Section 326 read with Section 34 of IPC on account of the assault on Shivaji Ganpati Pawar (PW 10). Both the accused are brothers and accused no. 1 was arrested on 2/8/2000 and accused no.2 was arrested on 5/8/2000. Accused no.2 came to be released on bail for the first time by this Court on 25/3/2003 whereas the accused no.l continues to be in jail as of now and right from the date of his arrest.

(2.) Deceased Yashwant was the brother of Baburao and Baban and the accused are the sons of Baburao whereas the third brother Baban died prior to the date of the incident and his son Deepak - PW 9 along with his mother were staying with Yashwant who was issueless and his wife was not staying with him. Kisan - PW 4 and Shivaji - PW 10 are the cousins of Yashwant and all these three families i.e. the family of the accused, the complainant and Deepak were staying in the neighbourhood houses on the opposite direction. They are the residents of village Vadoli-nileshwar in Karad Taluka. As per the prosecution case Baburao had installed a thrashing machine and it was causing nuisance to the other family members and on account of that there was continuous bickering between the family members. PW 4 and PW 10 were employed with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. On the date of the incident i.e. on 1/8/2000 at about 9 p.m. Baburao, the father of the accused started abusing Shivaji - PW 10 and deceased Yashwant, on account of the thrashing machine. Shivaji and Yashwant were in their houses and after some time the accused came out and took away their father in the house by pacifying him but after some time again he came out giving rise to a second altercation and his sons also joined. After hearing these altercations some of the neighbours intervened and separated the parties. Yashwant, the deceased, suggested to PW 10 Shivaji that these altercations had become a routine matter and, therefore, it would be better to lodge a police complaint with Karad Police Station. The Karad Police Station is located at a distance of about 10 Kms. from Vadoli and, therefore, Shivaji took out his M-80 two wheeler bearing Registration No.MH-11-6925 and deceased Yashwant was a pillion rider and they proceeded towards Karad. When the accused heard that Shivaji and Yashwant had proceeded to Karad to lodge a police complaint, they took out their Rajdoot motorcycle, accused no. 1 picked up an axe and accused no.2 with accused no.l as a pillion rider started driving his motorcycle towards Karadpolice station. When PW 4 Kisan and PW 9 Deepak saw the accused following Shivaji and Yashwant, PW 4 took out his M-80 two wheeler and with Deepak as a pillion rider followed the accused. The railway gate was at about a distance of about 2 and Vi Kms. from the location where the accused assaulted Yashwant and Shivaji. Rahul gave an axe blow to Yashwant while Shivaji was holding the two wheeler and, therefore, Yashwant fell down. Accused no.l continued with his assault on Yashwant and at that time accused no.2 gave a kick to the M-80 vehicle of Shivaji and, therefore, Shivaji fell down and at this stage Shivaji - PW 10 was also assaulted by both the accused with an axe. Immediately thereafter PW 4 and PW 9 arrived at the scene and PW 4 snatched the axe from Rahul's hand and he assaulted Sunil by the said axe. Consequently Sunil sustained bleeding injuries and Rahul accused no. 1 ran away. PW 4 and PW 9 picked up Yashwant and took him to the Cottage Hospital at Karad on the vehicle of PW 4 at about 10 p.m. and the doctor declared him dead. PW 10 Shivaji reached the same hospital on his vehicle though he had also sustained bleeding injuries. Accused no. 1 - Sunil reached the police station first in point of time and recorded a complaint and by then the police station had received a message that there was an incident of assault near the Parle Railway Gate at about 9 p.m. and one person had lost his life. The police went to the Cottage Hospital around midnight. PW 4 also went to the police station and lodged his complaint. C.R. No. 123 of 2000 came to be recorded at the behest of PW 4 whereas C.R. No. 124 of 2000 came to be recorded at the behest of accused no.l. Both accused no.l as well as PW 10 - Shivaji were sent for medical examination to the Cottage Hospital by the police and PW 8 Dr. Mohan Patil examined them and treated them.

(3.) The dead body of Yashwant was sent for post-mortem which was conducted by PW 6 - Dr. D. Jadhav who signed the P.M. report at Exhibit 27. The clothes of the accused as well as the deceased were seized and sent for chemical analysis along with the other articles like axe etc. The CA report at Exhibit 48 indicated that blood group of the deceased was "A" and that of the accused is also "A" whereas the blood group of PW 10 - Shivaji is "A", PW 4 - Kisan is "O" and PW 9 - Deepak is "B". The axe used was found to have smeared in human blood on its blade but its blood group could not be detected. On completion of investigation, charge-sheet came to be filed and as the offence being triable exclusively by the Sessions Court, the case was committed to the Sessions Court which framed the charge on 13/7/2001.