STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. VASANT HAN MANE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused-appellant Vasant Han Mane is sentenced to death by the Additional Sessions Judge Kolhapur, for committing murder of his mistress Anandibai, wife of Ramchandra Nangre and to suffer R. I. for seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- in default to suffer further R.I. for six months for destroying the evidence of the said crime.

(2.) Anandibai, who was a resident of village Kodoli was married to Ramchandra Nangre, a resident of Devwadi. But she left her husband soon after her marriage and returned to Kodoli to her father Ganu Had Patil. She developed intimacy with the accused. They resided together as husband and wife: 1 here was nothing secret about this relationship and even the relatives of Anandibai reconciled themselves to this affair. The accused is a married man having five children, who along with their mother reside in the ancestral house .of the accused at Kodoli.

(3.) Anandibai was last seen in the village on Friday, the 22nd July 1983. According to the prosecution, during the night between 22nd and 23rd July 1983, the accused cut Anandibais throat by means of a sharp cutting instrument and severed the head. He carried the dead body and the head in a gunny bag to the brook-let, which flows north-south by western side of the village Kodoli and meets river Warana, and threw this bundle in the said booklet at about mid-night between 22nd and 23rd July 1983. The accused, however, continued to reside in the same house tin Anandibais sisters son Pandurang Patil of Peth arrived at Kodoli and met him at the said house on Thursday, the 28th July 1983. On that day the accused gave the key of the house to Pandurang and went away telling him hat he would go to Kolhapur and ichulkaranji to trace Anandibai. He returned to the house on Friday and told Pandurang that he could not trace Anandibai. It. however, appears that on the same day Anandibais headless body? was found lying on the bank of the brooklet in the grass lands of Baban Bapu Ladgaonkar. On coming to know about it Anandibais TI nephew (brotherTs son) Rangrao Maruti Patil (P.W. 2) went to the brooklet and saw the dead body. No identified the dead body as that of his paternal aunt Anandibai and went to Kodoli Police Station and lodged the first information report, Ex. 16, expressing his suspicion tbat the accused killed his aunt and threw the dead body in the brooklet for destroying the evidence. As stated by Rangrao Patil (P.W. 2) this information was recorded at about 5-30 p.m. on that i.e. Friday, the 29th July 1983. Before that at about 1-30 p.m. the accused himself went to Kodoli police station and lodged the missing report, Ex. 53. An entry was duly made on the basis of the missing report in the missing register maintained by the police station by police Havildar Vasant Bandu Bhosale (P.W. 17) who was incharge of the police station at the material time.