BHAGWANT SHETIBA VITKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this appeal the appellant ('The accused' for short) takes exception to judgment and order dated 16 th March, 2004 passed by IInd Additional Sessions Judge, Baramati convicting the accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 3000/- and in default to undergo R.I. for two years.

(2.) Briefly the case of the prosecution is as under:- The accused got married to Sarubai, daughter of PW4 Chandrabai Lashkare about eight years prior to the incident. Out of the wedlock two sons were born. Initially the accused treated Sarubai well. Thereafter the accused started consuming liquor and beating Sarubai. Sarubai, therefore, started residing with her parents intermittently. About 15 days prior to the date of incident i.e. 2 nd December, 2002 Sarubai went to her mother's place which was in the same town i.e. Daund. Sarubai started working with a building contractor known as Kumar alongwith other lady workers. Sarubai Jadhav, Pamabai and Sundarbai were working with deceased for constructing a bungalow of one Baravkar at 'Samta Nagar'. Few days prior to the incident the accused went to contractor Kumar and asked him whether payments were made to the workers whereupon Kumar told him that he had made payments and asked accused why he was suspecting his wife and why he was assaulting her. On 1 st December, 2002 the accused went to the house of his mother-in-law in the evening after consuming liquor and abused his wife Sarubai. On 2/12/2002 Sarubai started for work place from the house at about 8.30 a.m. alongwith Sarubai Jadhav, Sunderbai Gunjal and Pamabai. Sunderbai and Pamabai took the road going from Father High School whereas deceased and Sarubai Jadhav took the way from Deepmala. When both of them were passing from the land of one Kisan Shankar Pawar on a foot track near Deepmala, suddenly, accused came from opposite direction on bicycle, threw his bicycle aside and caught Sarubai by his hand and questioned her as to why she was attending the work. There was a scuffle between two of them. Suddenly the accused took out the knife from his waist and gave blows on the vital parts of the body of deceased Sarubai. Sarubai Jadhav requested the accused not to assault his wife. Therefore, Sarubai Jadhav gave shouts. Several persons gathered on the spot. The accused went away on the bicycle. Sarubai Vitkar died on the spot.

(3.) A phone call was given to police station Daund regarding the incident. Immediately PW8 Inspector Shankar Kengar proceeded to the place of occurrence and saw Sarubai Jadhav sitting there and Sarubai Vitkar was lying there. Sarubai Jadhav told him that Sarubai Vitkar was murdered by her husband by giving knife blows. Inspector Kengar sent Sarubai Jadhav to the police station with a staff member. Sarubai lodged report (Exhibit 33) in the police station pursuant to which C.R. No. 187/2002 under Section 302 of I.P.C. was registered against the accused at 9.40 a.m.. Thereafter, Sarubai Jadhav returned to the spot. Inspector Kengar drew panchnama of the scene of offence and the Inquest panchnama and thereafter body was sent for post morterm examination. The accused was arrested at 5.00p.m. on the same day under panchnama (Exhibit 30). On 5/12/2002, at the instance of the accused knife which was used by the accused was discovered and seized. Since Inspector Kengar was transferred, he handed over investigation to Inspector Survegandh. The articles seized were sent for chemical analysis. After completion of the investigation, chargesheet was filed against the accused in the Court of JMFC, Daund. As the offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC is exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, Learned JMFC, Daund committed the case for trial to the Sessions Court at Baramati.