PRALHAD MUKINDA KSHIRSAGAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant has challenged his conviction and sentence for having committed offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code by the sessions Judge, Buldana in Sessions Trial No. 47/1995, by his judgment and order dated 24-7-1995. In nutshell, it is the prosecution case that on 2-11-1994 at about 11. 00 a. m. , the appellant went to the place where the three sisters i. e. deceased Gokulabai, Asha and Punjabai had gone to outskirts of the village to attend nature s call and were sitting on road side to defecate. The appellant was armed with an axe. He assaulted Gokulabai with the axe by giving three blows on her head. Thereafter, he went and sat on a heap of stone rubble lying there. Punjabai, who was about 10/11 years old, ran to her house and narrated the incident to her mother that Pralhad has given blow to Gokula with axe. On this, lilabai, the mother of the victim, came running to the place and saw Gokula lying there. The appellant was standing nearby with hands back, holding an axe. So, she lifted gokula and brought her to the house. The persons from the village came running to the house. Sopan Borse (P. W. 1) took gokula on his shoulders and he, along with Rajesh Kapse went to Dhanora. From Dhanora, they took an autorickshaw in order to go to Malkapur. On the way near Dhanora Phata, they saw one Police Vehicle coming, so they stopped the rickshaw and told the police that the appellant assaulted Gokula and injured her. P. I. Syed Gayasuddin (P. W. 10) informed him to give a report to the Rural Police Station and that they will proceed to arrest the accused person. So he took Gokula to the Police Station and gave information to the Police. The report was taken down as F. I. R. (Exhibit 10 ). By the time gokula was brought to the Police Station, she has died, therefore, after the inquest panchanama (Exhibit 8) was prepared, her body was sent to Medical Officer for post mortem examination.

(2.) P. I. Syed Gayasuddin arrested the appellant/accused and seized the axe produced by one Vasant Bonde under seizure panchanama (Exhibit 26) Dr. Uttam Jadhav (P. W. 2)conducted the post mortem on dead body of Gokula d/o Rambhau borse. The post mortem report is at Exhibit 12 in the opinion of the Medical Officer, death was due to head injury with intracronial haemorrhage over crushed lacerated brain injury. The investigating officer carried out the necessary investigation and after completing the investigation, filed chargesheet against the appellant/accused for having committed offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal code.

(3.) THE case of the appellant was taken up for trial by the Sessions Judge, Buldana who framed the charge (Exhibit 2) on 6-5-1995. The appellant rather pleaded guilty by admitting the charge and stated that he was holding an axe which hit the victim and she died. The learned Sessions judge thereafter put further questions in order to ascertain as to why the accused is pleading guilty to the charge of murder. But the appellant was very specific and he told that he is in sound state of mind and not under pressure nor suffering from any mental illness and that he can read and write. He also stated that advocate has been engaged through his son-in-law and gave the name of the Advocate Shri Dhage and he does not want to engage an advocate. The learned sessions Judge did not accept the plea of guilty and felt that accused deserves to be tried. In support of the case, the prosecution examined the eye witnesses and also relied upon the forensic and medical evidence. The learned Sessions judge found that the accused is guilty of having committed an offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.