SANTOSH BALU MALI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant convict has been held guilty of committing offence punishable under Sec. 302, 201 and 498-A of the Indian Penal Code, by Judgment and order dtd. 15/4/2015 in Sessions Case No.145 of 2014 by learned District Judge-1 and Additional Sessions Judge, Newasa, District-Ahmednagar, and sentenced him to suffer imprisonment for life for the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code. It is stated in the Judgment that no separate sentence is passed for the offence punishable under Sec. 201, 498-A of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The prosecution story, in short, is that informant Kashinath Mohan Mali has sister by name Tai Gangule. Tai's husband had expired long back and she being disabled, used to reside with Kashinath. Tai's daughter Suman was married to accused Santosh about 5 to 6 years prior to the First Information Report (for short "FIR") dtd. 17/6/2014. Suman and accused were having daughter Komal, aged 2 ½ years and a son, aged 4 to 5 months on the date of the FIR. Though the native place of accused Santosh is Gondegaon, he used to reside at village Chincholi, Taluka-Newasa, District-Ahmednagar in the field of one Kamte and the area is known as Kamte Vasti. Accused Santosh was married prior to his marriage with Suman, however, the first wife was not cohabiting with Santosh. Santosh was addicted to liquor and used to harass Suman. Suman had gone to Kashinath's house at the time of Hanuman Jayanti. Santosh had gone to the house of Kashinath under the influence of liquor and therefore, Kashinath refused to send Suman along with him.

(3.) After lodging of the FIR, investigation was taken up. Statements of witnesses were recorded. The dead body was sent for postmortem. Accused came to be arrested. He gave memorandum and discovered the place where he had buried the son. Only skull was found from that place. The sample of DNA was sent for analysis and after the completion of the investigation, charge-sheet was filed.