TULSABAI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant in this appeal has been convicted for an offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for having committed the murder of one Madabai alias Kaushalyabai wife of Karbhari Karate on the afternoon of 22nd May, 1977 by pouring kerosene over her body and setting fire to her. The entire prosecution case depended upon the dying declarations, which were not less than five in number, and the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Nasik who heard this case was sufficiently impressed by these dying declarations to convict the accused for the offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. In the appeal before us, which is supported by the learned Advocate Mr. U.G. Kerkar, we have gone through the entire evidence on record with his assistance and we are constrained to say that none of those five dying declarations is persuasive enough to bring home the guilt to the accused. With these remarks by way of preface, we must now set out the prosecution case as pleaded in the Court below.

(2.) Deceased Mandabai is the wife of one Karbhari Karate who is working as a labourer in some transport Company at Nasik. The husband and wife lived in room No. 2 in a chawl bearing the name Nana Patil Chawl situated at Panchavati, Nasik. The appellant, who will be hereinafter be referred to as "the accused", is also the occupant of another room in the same chawl. It is the prosecution case, and it has also come in evidence, that the family of the deceased Mandabai was financially in a strained condition partly at least because her husband being given to the vice of drinking was unable to provide her with the wherewithal to run the house. Realising her acute economic situation, the accused is alleged to have suggested to Mandabai that she should indulge in prostitution in which profession the accused is said to have a helping hand. This suggestion was resented by Mandabai who also complained to her husband against the accused. Her husband Karbhari is alleged to have reprimanded the accused for having made such a preposterous suggestion to his wife. Indeed there is evidence to show that on 22nd of May, 1977, one day before the date of the incident leading to this prosecution, the accused had lodged a complaint against Karbhari for having assaulted her. That complaint is at Exhibit 24 in the record.

(3.) The incident in question took place on Monday, the 23rd of May, 1977, at about 3.30 p.m. or 4.00 p.m. By this time, according to the prosecution, Mandabais husband Karbhari had come for his mid-day meal after taking which he left the house around 3.00 p.m. Thereafter a quarrel ensued between Mandabai and the accused at about 3.30 p.m. during which the accused is said to have thrown nearly two litres of kerosene on the body of Mandabai and set fire to her clothes by throwing a burning match-stick upon her. Mandabai ran outside her room with her clothes burning whereupon a neighbour called Hirabai and some others rushed and tried to extinguish the fire by throwing wet quilts on her body. Thereafter one Sushilabai, who is the aunt of Mandabai, came on the scene along with one Shridhar, who is Sushilabais cousin. They lived in an adjacent chawl bearing the name of Sampat Sheth Chawl. They took Mandabai in a rickshaw, to the Civil Hospital at Nasik where she was admitted around 5 p.m. and was attended to immediately on admission by Dr. Deshpande. But before this happened, says the prosecution, to queries made by Sushilabai and Shridhar, independent of each other, Mandabai disclosed that the accused threw Kerosene on her body and set fire to her clothes. These are the two initial dying declarations which have been sought to be pressed into service by the prosecution.