STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. JAGANNATH ATMARAM PATIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE facts of this case are both gory and gruesome. A six year old girl belonging to village Dhavde appears to have been given in marriage by her parents in a typical child marriage ceremony about a year prior to the incident at which time silver anklets and wristlets were made for her apart from two golden ear rings. These items of jewellery were valued approximately at Rs. 2400/- which is princily amount having regard to the fact that the village itself is a little hamlet situated in a remote and relatively backward area. On the night of 3. 5. 1990 the girl Jijabai who was then aged about six years and who was sleeping on the ota alongwith other members of the family, disappeared and efforts made by the members of the house hold to locate her were fruitless. Around sun-rise P. W. 4 Sumanbai Patil who is a neighbour informed the girls father that her multilated body was lying in a field close-by. On rushing there, the family members came up on a horrifying sight of Jeejabais body minus her hands and feet both of which had been chopped off in addition to which parts of the right thigh, buttocks etc. had been eaten up by some animals. The body was brought to the house and her father P. W. 1 Dasrath Patil went to Dhondaicha Police Station and lodged a complaint. The Police immediately came to the village, sent the body for post mortem and commenced the investigations. The prosecution alleges that the name of the accused who also happens to be a labourer and resident of that village, surfaced in the course of investigation. PS I Shinde went to the house of the accused on the evening of that day and it is alleged that the accused was not traceable. A reddish coloured chaddar was seized by the police under a panchanama because it is the contention advanced by the prosecution that the brother of the deceased Jijabai P. W. 2, 12 year old Dhanraj Patil, had disclosed to his parents that the accused had lifted up Jijabai and run away with her at night and that while doing so, he had covered himself with a reddish chaddar and that he had bumped against the cot on which Dhanraj was sleeping. According to the PSI he saw the accused in the village on the evening of 6. 5. 1990, took him to the Police Station and arrested him under a panchanama. The arrest panchanama alleges that the dhoti of the accused appeared to be stained with blood and seemed to have been washed.

(2.) IT is the prosecution case that while he was in custody, the accused made a statement in the presence of panchas which was recorded in the form of a memorandum pursuant to which he led the police party and panchas to a heap of fodder in one of the fields from where he produced an axe which was attached under a panchanama, the axe being apparently blood stained. The accused further took the party to a small rivulet on the side of which he removed a stone, excavated the earth and produced all the four silver ornaments that were missing from the wrist and ankles of the deceased Jijabai. Thereafter the accused is alleged to have led the party back to his house and to have dug a small hole near the cattle shed and after removing the earth took out the golen ear rings which are alleged to have been removed from the person of the deceased Jijabai. After completing the investigation the accused was placed on trial before the learned Sessions Judge, Dhule and was charged with having committed offences, under sections 302, 392 read with 397 of Indian Penal Code. The learned Trial Judge after assessing the evidence on record acquitted the accused of all the three charges but he however held him guilty of an offence punishable under section 411 of Indian Penal Code in so far as it has emerged in the course of the trial that the prosecution had conclusively established that the ornaments of the deceased Jijabai had been recovered at the instance of the accused. He was accordingly awarded a sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment and a fine in the sum of Rs. 1000/- in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months. Apparently, the accused did not prefer any appeal against this conviction. The State of Maharashtra however has preferred the present appeal whereby the order of acquittal on the major charges has been assailed. In view of the fact that the accused happens to be from an extremely poor strata Mr. Rajiv Patil has been appointed State counsel to appear on his behalf.

(3.) WE have heard Mr. S. B. Patil, learned A. P. P. at considerable length in this case because the facts are so distressing that it was essential for us to minutely scrutinise the entire record in order to ascertain as to whether the material in fact does connect the present accused with the major offence and secondly as to whether the calibar of the evidence adduced by the prosecution is strong enough to sustain a conviction under sections 302, 392 and 397 of the Indian Penal Code, all of which are extremely serious charges.