CHANDRASEN MARUTI DHOTRE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant - accused herein is convicted by the Sessions Judge, Sangli in Sessions Case No. 111 of 1999 decided on 17th January 2001 for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1908 (hereinafter, in short referred to as "the IPC".) and is sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and pay fine of Rs.3,000.00 and in default to suffer R.I. for 1 month. The same judgment and order is under challenge in the present appeal.

(2.) THE incident has taken place in 'Dhotre Aba' Zopadpatti, situated at Old Kupwad, District: Sangli. The deceased -Sitaram is the brother in law of the accused, i.e., sister of the deceased is the wife of the accused. They were residing in the hutment referred to above. Their houses are having thatched walls. In between the house of the accused and house of the deceased there was a common thatched wall. The accused was in the habit of playing tape-recorder in a loud volume which annoyed the deceased and his family members. On 9.8.1998 at about 9.00 p.m. while the deceased and his family members were sleeping the accused played the tape-recorder in his house and the utensils in his house collapsed. Therefore, the accused become aggressive and abused the deceased and his family members. Therefore, the deceased came out of the house and came in front of the house of the accused. There was a verbal exchange of words between the accused and deceased. While the verbal exchange was going on, the accused took out the knife and assaulted the deceased on back and stomach and ran away from the house. Thereafter the deceased was taken to the Civil Hospital, Sangli. However, he succumbed to the death at 4.00 a.m. on 10.8.1998, i.e., the deceased has died within 7 hours from the assault. In the morning FIR was lodged by the wife of the deceased - Shantabai (Pw-3). The post mortem was carried out and thereafter the investigation was carried out and the accused was chargesheeted.

(3.) SO far as the incidence is concerned, there is no dispute between the parties. In order to prove the incidence, the prosecution has examined PW.3 & 4 as eye-witnesses. PW.3 (Shantabai) is the wife of the deceased and PW.4 (Ashok) is the brother of the deceased. Apart from that the prosecution has examined PW.2 (Sanjay) as a panch to prove the discovery of the knife at the instance of the accused. Exhibit-25 and Exhibit-25 (A) respectively are the Memorandum statements of the accused and discovery panchnama in respect of Article-7. The Chemical Analyser Report at Exhibit-46 shows that the knife is having human blood, however, the blood group is inconclusive.