SANTOSH JAYWANT TAKAWANE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD rival arguments on this Criminal Appeal preferred by the appellant/orig.accused challenging the judgment and order of conviction dated 11.6.2004 passed by the IInd Additional Sessions Judge, Baramati, District - Pune. The impugned judgment and order was passed in Sessions Case No.25 of 2003 and present appellant/sole accused was convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC and was sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.500/-, in default to suffer RI for two months.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution, in nutshell, is as under : The complainant - Vithabai is resident of village Pargaon, Taluka - Daund, District - Pune. She has three sons, namely, Shantaram, Chandrakant and Kailash. All her sons were residing separately with their respective families, but they were residing in the neighbourhood of the complainant. The family of the complainant owned an agricultural land known as "Satpatti land" situate at a distance of about 3 km from Pargaon and they were cultivating the said land separately. Deceased Nirmala was wife of Chandrakant and she has one son and daughter out of the marriage. Appellant/accused is the relative of the complainant and was frequently visiting the house of Nirmala. Due to such frequent visits, apparently the appellant/accused had developed intimacy with Nirmala and about six months prior to the main incident of fatal assault on the victim, there was some incident occurred at the house of Nirmala. That time, the complainant had occasion to witness the presence of the appellant/accused in the house of Nirmala and also witnessed that appellant/accused and Nirmala were in compromising position and were having sexual intercourse. Noticing this incident, there was hue and cry in the family and appellant/accused was reprimanded by the complainant and she drew him out of the house of Nirmala and warned him not to come to the house and meet Nirmala again. While going away, appellant/accused has threatened the complainant of dire consequences. Complainant disclosed the said incident to her elder son Shantaram (PW-2) and as such Shantaram also censored the appellant/accused and warned him not to come to the house of Chandrakant and Nirmala. After this incident and censoring of the accused, he stopped visiting the house of victim Nirmala.

(3.) ON the same day of the incident, scene of offence was visited by the police along with panchas and scene of offence panchnama was conducted. That time, knife, separate plastic handle of knife, pieces of bangles, pair of a male slippers and pair of female slippers and the soil mixed with blood and also soil from the area were taken charge of under the panchnama. Dead body of victim Nirmala was sent for postmortem after inquest panchnama and postmortem report was obtained from the Primay Health Centre, Yavat. Postmortem was conducted by PW-8 Dr. Ashok Rasage. In the postmortem report, cause of death is mentioned as shock due to punctured right lung due to punctured wound over the right supraclaricular area. Separate panchnama was conducted during which clothes of the victim woman were taken charge of as produced by police head constable Holkar. House of the appellant/accused was searched and panchnama was prepared. However, the appellant/accused was not found as he was missing. Subsequently he came to be arrested on 27.8.2002 i.e. after about 12 days of the incident. It is also the case of the prosecution that on 29.8.2002 appellant/accused made a voluntary statement to produce his clothes and thereafter said clothes were recovered at his instance under the panchnama. All the seized muddemal articles were sent for chemical analysis. Chemical Analyzer's report was obtained. Statements of various witnesses were recorded during investigation and on completion of investigation, chargesheet was filed against the appellant/accused and the matter was committed to the Court of Sessions and was disposed of by convicting the appellant/accused. Said conviction is challenged in the present appeal.