GANGADHAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This accused has preferred this appeal against his conviction and sentence passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Nanded,

(2.) The prosecution case is that one Kerba Bandey had four sons viz. (1) Nagorao, (2) Belu, (3) Laxman and (4) Govind. They had land at village Ashtur, Taluka Kandhar, Dist. Nanded. The accused also had his land near about the land of Kerba Bandey. On 17-1-1979, Laxman and Govind were grazing their cattle in their filed. One Bhausaheb M. Suryanshey was also grazing the cattle in his field. Laxman, Govind and Belu are all young children between the ages of 10 to 12 years. After they grazed their cattle, they took their cattle to the river for drinking water and thereafter they grazed their cattle in the field of one Atmaram which was adjacent to the field of the accused. The cattle entered the field of the accused who got annoyed and slapped the three children and scolded them. Then Govind Laxman and Bhausaheb went to the field of one Lokuram where Belu was working as a labourer and informed him about the incident. Belu went to the field of the said Atmaram and accosted the accused as to why he slapped the three children and told him to show the damage done to the gram crop which was standing on the field of the accused. The accused did not give any response to the request and, therefore, Belu dragged the accused in the field telling him to show the damage. There was a scuffle between the accused and Belu and during the scuffle, the accused took out a knife from his pantpocket and stabbed Belu on the left side abdomen from behind. The intestine protruded out. Belu fell down unconscious. At that time, Nagorao who was working in his field heard the shout that Belu was assaulted. Nagorao went running to the field of Atmaram. He found Belu lying with the injury on the stomach in an unconcious condition. The Belu's injury was tied with a lion cloth and he was taken on cot and brought to the village and from there Belu was taken to the Malakoli Police Station where the F.I.R. lodged by Nagorao was recorded by P.S.I. Marwalikar. Thereafter Belu was taken to the General Hospital, Nanded and was admitted as an indoor patient. He was discharged on 27-1-1979.

(3.) The accused was arrested on 18-1-1979 at about 1.30 p.m. At the instance of the accused, the knife, article 5 was taken charge of by the police under panchanama Ex. 17A. The memorandum of the statement made by the accused is at Ex. 17. Belu had suffered a stab injury of 3" x 2" on the left side of abdomen and coils of intestines were protruding out. The injury was peritonium deep. Dr. (Mrs.) Jyoti Deshmukh who examined Belu at the General Hospital, Nanded has opined that the injury was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.