DROPADABAI NAMDEO KHESE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN Sessions Case No. 131 of 1998 the present appellant/accused was put on trial and by his judgment and order dated 9th March, 2000 the learned 2nd Additional Sessions Judge at Ahmednagar convicted her for the offences punishable under sections 302 and 342 of the Indian Penal Code (the Code, for short) and she is sentenced to suffer life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-, in default to suffer R. I. for, one month for the offence punishable under section 302 of the Code and to suffer R. I. for one month and to pay fine of Rs. 500/- in default to suffer r. I. for one month for offence punishable under section 342 of the Code. Hence, this appeal.

(2.) AS per the prosecution Santosh Namdeo Khese, the son of the accused, as married to Mangala, daughter of P. W. 4 Bhagwan Jijabab Sathe, from the same village ad their respective houses were close-by. The accused was staying with her husband, son and daughter-in-law. It appears that on 30th May, 1998 Mangala and the accused had gone to their agricultural land to work and Santosh and his father Namdeo Khese had gone to Shirur (Taluka headquarter ). At about 11. 00 a. m. , while working in the agricultural land, the deceased Mangala requested the mother-in-law to buy her a pair of chappals and the mother-in-law, in turn, told the deceased to ask her father to buy a pair of Chappals for her. The deceased replied that when she was working for her matrimonial home she could not ask her father to buy a pair of Chappals for her. At this reply, the mother-in-law abused the deceased and at that time P. W. 4 Bhagwan was passing by. He heard the exchange of words between the accused and the deceased and told the deceased to go home rather than arguing with her mother-in-law. The deceased, therefore, went home at about 11. 30 a. m. the mother -in-law followed her and while the deceased was drinking water the mother-in-law picked up the kerosene can, poured kerosene on her person and set the deceased on fire by lighting a match stick. The accused ran away by bolting the door of the house from outside. The deceased broke open the door and came out on the road in burning condition. The neighbours gathered, including the nephew of the deceased by name Nitin Appa Khese and they tried to extinguish the fire. The deceased was taken to the Civil Hospital at nagar. Her dying declarations came to be recorded on two occasions and while under treatment she died on 3rd June, 1998. Initially an offence was recorded under section 307 and the accused was arrested on 31st May, 1998 but subsequently the crime was amended and the F. I. R. came to be registered for an offence under section 302 of the Code.

(3.) THE prosecution examined in all ten witnesses. The deceased Mangala reportedly made the first oral dying declaration to P. W. 3 Tukaram Maruti ugnade, Police Patil, P. W. 7 Kishan Bhimaji Gaikwad, Naib Tahsildar recorded dying declaration at Exhibit-22 and P. W. 9 Janaku Kondiram vidhate, A. P. I, recorded yet another dying declaration at Exhibit-27 which was also treated as F. I. R. P. W. 1 Dr. Laxman Sakharam Pawar conducted autopsy and submitted post-mortem notes at Exhibit-11. Second oral dying declaration was reportedly made by the deceased to P. W. 4 Bhagwan. P. W. 5 Dnyaneshwar Natha Sathe is the cousin of the deceased. When the deceased was taken to the civil hospital at Nagar P. W. 8 Dr. Sunil Pannalal pokharna had admitted her on 30th May, 1998 in the burn-ward after recording the case history.