YOGESH RAJENDRAPRASAD SHARMA Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the appeals are filed against the judgment and order of Sessions Case No. 76/1995, which was pending in the Court of Sessions Judge, Dhule. Criminal Appeal No. 110/1998 and 144/1998 are filed by the accused Nos. 2 to 4 against the conviction given to them. Accused Yogesh was convicted and sentenced for offence punishable under section 302 of Indian Penal Code ("I.P.C." for short). He is now dead. The remaining two appeals are filed by the State as accused Nos. 1, 3 and 4 are acquitted of the offence of murder. Both the sides are heard. In short, the case of the prosecution can be given as follows:--

(2.) The deceased had stopped working due to old age. They had sold their property from Rajasthan and they had deposited the sale proceeds in the bank. The interest accruing on this amount was the only source of income for livelihood to the deceased. Rekha used to visit Dhule to see her parents. She knew that her mother was having gold ornaments like gold neckless of 3 tola, gold ear top having red stones, one gold nose ring. These ornaments were used to be on the person of Gitadevi. Accused No. 1 was demanding money from the deceased. He had demanded money through complainant Rekha also. He had said that he would take care and maintain the deceased, if the amount of Rs. 50,000/- is given to him. He had grievance that nothing was given to him by the deceased and everything was given by them to Rekha. The deceased were not sure about accused No. 1 and so they refused to give any amount to accused No. 1.

(3.) In the month of February 1995, accused No. 1 visited the house of Rekha and he was there for about 8-10 hours. When accused No. 1 left the house, Rekha noticed that her ornaments like four gold bangles, a ring of nose of gold and also the cash amount of Rs. 1,000/- were missing. She had suspicion as against accused No. 1 that accused No. 1 committed theft of these articles during his short stay. She informed about this suspicion to her parents and in turn, the parents asked some neighbours and relatives to make inquiry with the family of accused No. 1. After few days of the visit of accused No. 1 to Mumbai, Rekha went to Dhule, on 19.2.1995. She stayed there till 28.2.1995. During this stay, she visited the house of accused and when the talk with regard to aforesaid articles was opened, there was quarrel between Rekha and Gitadevi on one side and accused Nos. 3 and 4 on the other. During the quarrel, accused No. 3 gave threat to Rekha and her mother as they had taken suspicion against his father.