SATYADEVSINGH JAYRAMSINGH THAKUR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant-accused No. 1 has preferred this appeal against the judgment and order dated 29th May, 1999 passed by the additional Sessions Judge, Pune in Sessions Cases No. 467 of 1998, whereby, the appellant has been convicted for the offence punishable under section 302 of Indian Penal Code (I. P. C.) and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. He has also been convicted for the offence punishable under section 394 of I. P. C. and sentenced to undergo 7 years rigorous imprisonment. Therefore, this appeal against the order of conviction.

(2.) ONE Smt. Satyabhamabai, the deceased, aged about 78 years was residing alone in the house bearing CTS No. 686, Nana Peth, at Pune. The three sons of the deceased are settled in America, Malaysia and Spain. The deceased had undergone an operation for breast cancer just six months before the incident. P. W. 3 Meharoo Manek Aga used to sleep in the said house to give company to the deceased. P. W. 8 Mohansingh Somayasi Thakur was substituted as a domestic servant in the place of one Hari Singh, just three months prior to the incident. Mohansingh used to reside in the house of the deceased and apart from cooking, he also used to work as a domestic servant. P. W. 7 Suman Kailas was also engaged as a maid servant of the house. P. W. 10 Parubai Suresh Kamble used to visit the house of the deceased for sweeping in the morning and in the afternoon. Mohansingh expressed his desire to visit his native place. Therefore, on request of the deceased, Mohansingh had introduced appellant-accused No. 1 as a substitute servant/cook. Therefore, appellant-accused No. 1, along with Mohansingh, stayed in the house to understand the routine and needs of the deceased, as well as, of the house. On 5th August, 19998 at about 8. 30 p. m. , the accused went along with mohansingh to the Railway Station to see him off. The accused No. 1, as assured, to work as a cook in the house, returned from the railway station. On the same day, at about 10. 45 p. m. , P. W. 3 Meharoo went to the house of the deceased for sleeping. The front door of the house was closed from inside. She rang the bell, but there was no response. She therefore, took a round of the house and peeped through the window into the house and noticed that the front room was open and the lights were on. She peeped through the second window and noticed that the lights were on and the cupboards were opened. An open suitcase was lying on the bed. The third room was dark. She, therefore, took a round from the other side of the house and called for parma and Hari, but no one responded. P. W. 3 Meharoo, therefore, went to the first floor of the building and informed the landlady that there was no response from the house of the deceased and requested the landlady to accompany her to the house of the deceased. P. W. 1 Vasco Bernardo Fernandes and his wife accordingly came to the ground floor. They gave a push to the door of the house of the deceased and entered into the house. They found that the deceased Satyabhamabai was lying on the sofa. The family doctor, Dr. Kukade, was called. Satyabhamabai was found dead. They also noticed that the house was ransacked and the cupboards were open. The valuables on the person of the deceased viz. gold rings, bangles and wrist watch were also missing. Mr. Fernandes informed the brother of the deceased P. W. 11 Murali thakurdas Kripalani, who reached the spot of the incident and found satyabhamabai was dead. The incident was accordingly informed to the control room. P. W. 14 Babajan Lalbhai Tamboli was attached to the Samarth police Station as Police Inspector. After receipt of the telephone message and after recording the same in the information book (Exhibit 38), he went to the spot along with the other police personnel. He also saw the dead body of the deceased on the sofa. The spot panchanama was drawn. Mr. Tamboli, P. I. found one wooden rolling pin, one Turkish towerland a napkin near the dead body. The Dog Unit, Fingerprint Expert and the Photographer was called. The photographs were taken. The Fingerprint Expert took some chance prints on the cupboards and other things. The dog unit, thereafter proceeded towards the Padmaji Park Society. The brother of the deceased Murali gave oral report which was reduced into writing (Exhibit 29 ). The offence was registered accordingly. The body of Satyabhama was sent to Sassoon Hospital for the postmortem examination, which was conducted by P. W. 4 Dr. Sudhir Digambar nanandkar on 6th August, 1998 and vide (Exhibit 18) he opined that the death was due to asphyxia on account of throttling.

(3.) MOHANSINGH was brought to the Police Station on 7th August, 1998 and he was interrogated. P. W. 13 PSI Chandu Janardhan Thakur reached village Babraiyya, Taluka Tarafganj, District Gonda (U. P.) on 9th August, 1998 and with the assistance of the Tarafganj Police, they found appellant accused no. 1 in the house and accordingly, he was arrested. The appellant accused no. 1 was interrogated. The accused No. 2 tried to escape on seeing the police along with the accused No. 1. However, after some chase, he was also caught by PSI Thakur. Third co-accused could not be located. Both these accused were produced on 12th August, 1998. The appellant-accused No. 1 made statement vide Exhibit 15, which lead to the recovery of the ornaments and other articles belonging to the deceased from the burial ground situated near the spot of the incident. The articles were seized in the presence of the panchas and identified as belonging to the deceased. From accused No. 2, 62 currency notes of denomination of Rs. 50/- were seized in the presence of the panchas. As reported by the complainant Murali, on 5th August, 1998, his sister Usha had telephoned the deceased Satyabhamabai and the deceased informed that the appellant was working as a substitute for Mohan. As per the complainant, the deceased had cash of Rs. 15,000/- with her. She also noticed that the wrist watch and the gold ornaments on the person of the deceased were also missing. After completion of the investigation, the accused were charge-sheeted under sections 302, 394 read with section 34 I. P. C. Both the accused abjured their guilt and stated that they have been falsely implicated. The appellant-accused No. 1 categorically denied that on 5th August, 1998, he was working with the deceased as a cook. No evidence was led by the accused. The learned additional Sessions Judge, after considering the material and the evidence on the record held that Satyabhamabai died homicidal death. The appellant accused no. 1 had committed robbery and murdered the deceased.