STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. DASHRATH PANDURANG GAIKWAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State of Maharashtra being aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 3rd January 2003 passed by the 2nd Adhoc Assistant Sessions Judge, Solapur in Sessions Case No.196 of 2001 acquitting the respondent herein for the offences punishable under sections 341 , 342 , 354 , 366 , 376 , 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code has filed the present appeal.

(2.) The factual matrix of the case is as follows :-

(3.) According to PW1, the accused had been to his house and was demanding the due instalment and had further directed his wife to send some person to the Police Station along with the installment money. PW1 had warned his wife not to talk with the Police. The following day, he was threatened by the accused. His wife was annoyed with the threat extended to her husband by the accused and therefore, she had disclosed to him her intention to lodge the report. On 10 th August 2000, the couple was apprehended by the accused and that the accused had forcibly taken his wife along with him on the motorcycle. He had informed about the said incident to the Police immediately but no cognizance was taken. Instead PW1 was directed to wait for the accused and his wife to return. PW1 had then returned home but his wife had not returned. According to him, on the next day, he had narrated the incident to the Police and had given a written application which is at Exh.31 and thereafter, in the afternoon, his wife and the accused were brought to the Police Station. PW1 was not allowed to meet his wife. He had learnt from his wife that the accused had kept her in confinement and ravished her. The statement of PW1 was recorded by PW3 belatedly. PI Shri Kale had obtained signature of PW1 on a blank paper. It is elicited in the cross-examination that the prosecutrix had lodged a report against PW1 alleging ill-treatment and harassment on account of suspecting her character. It is also admitted that on 8th no complaint was filed against the accused and that the statement of his wife was recorded in the Police Station on the next day.