SURESH ANANT CHAUGLE AND STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND SURESH ANANT CHAUGLE AND BAPU MARUTI MANDALE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These four appeals arise out of the order passed by the learned Sessions Judge of Sangli in Sessions Case No. 75 of 1975. In the said sessions case, two accused, Suresh Anant Changule and Bapu Maruti Mandale, were prosecuted for offences punishable under section 302, 376 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. We must straightaway proceed to mention the facts briefly which led to the prosecution.

(2.) Accused No. 1 is said to be a well-to-do agriculturist having lands at village Kasbe Digraj. He owns several pieces of lands amongst which Survey Nos. 1538 and 1536 are two. In Survey No. 1538 he has a residential house together with a cattle shed. In the year 1975 he had grown paddly and sugarcane in Survey No. 1536. Adjacent to Survey No. 1538 is Survey No. 1539 on which is situated what is called a Ganjikhana of the village. Next to this Ganjikhana there is Survey No. 1540 is which there is a water tank. Behind Survey No. 1539, there is Survey No. 1562 which belongs to one Gurling Teli. We are mentioning the locations of these survey numbers because it will enable us to appreciate the evidence which we do partly while narrating the prosecution case itself. The map at Exhibit No. 5 drawn by P.W. 1 Baburao Rangrao Suryavanshi gives the correct picture of the situations of these lands.

(3.) According to the prosecution, on 2nd of August, 1975 one Ratnabai, a widow of this village, was working in Survey No. 1536. Along with her, several other persons including accused No. 2 were working. At about 2.00 p.m. on that day, Mangala, the daughter of Ratnabai, brought food for her mother. After she delivered the food Ratnabai cut some sugarcane leaves and tied the same in a bundle. She gave the said bundle to Mangala for carrying it to her house. Mangala thereafter returned in the direction of the village by a footpath. The prosecution alleges that sometime thereafter Accused No. 1 came on the scene and also left by the footpath with the intention to water the sugarcane crop. After finishing her days work, Ratnabai returned to her house to find that Mangala had not returned with the bundle which she had given to her. She woke up the neighbourhood and several neighbours started a search for Mangala. In this search party, Dhondiram, the brother of Ratnabai and uncle of the girl Mangala, was one. The search led them to the filed of Guruling Teli where, according to the prosecution, a part of the green saree as also certain broken bangles were found. Since it was night time the search was suspended and thereafter it was resumed on 3rd of August, 1975. After digging some area in the field of Guruling Teli the body of Mangala was discovered. Dhondiram, the uncle of Mangala, went to Budhgaon Police Station, a place ten miles away from this village, and lodged a complaint at Exhibit 16. This set the investigating machinery into motion.