STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. GORAKSHA AMBAJI ADSUL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these proceedings, i. e. Reference submitted by IInd adhoc Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmednagar, under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal procedure, 1973 for confirmation of death sentence, and the appeal against conviction under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal procedure, by original accused No. 1, arise out of the judgment and order dated 14-2-2005, delivered in Sessions Case No. 34 of 2003. At the conclusion of the said Sessions Trial, appellant-accused No. 1-Goraksha is held guilty for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of Indian Penal Code. He is sentenced to death (to be hanged by neck till he is dead) , fine of Rs. 10,000/-, in default, simple imprisonment for one month on account of finding of guilty, so far as charge of murder is concerned. He is also sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for seven years and fine of Rs. 10,000/-, in default simple imprisonment for one month on the second count, i. e. for offence punishable under Section 201 of I. P. C. Accused No. 2 - Mininath (younger brother of present appellant) and accused No. 3 Sunita (wife of present appellant) , who were charged together with present appellant Goraksha as co-accused; are acquitted by the Trial Court of all the charges levelled against them.

(2.) Peculiarity of the case is that, the investigation was set into motion, not by any first Information Report, but by the dead bodies of the three victims, recovered in two different trains at two different locations, namely, Daund (District Pune, Maharashtra) and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). On reference to the depositions of PW-8 B. B. Joshi, then working as Deputy Station Manager (Commercial) at Bhopal Railway Station, PW-9 premchand Jatav, Deputy Station superintendent of Bhopal Railway Station, and pw-11 Someshwar Mishra, ASI attached to bhopal Railway Police Station, it appears that one black coloured unclaimed trunk (metallic box) was noticed in Bogie No. S-6 of Train no. 2779 (Goa-Nizamoddin Express) , which arrived at Bhopal Railway Station on 25-10- 2002 at about 7.10 p. m. (19.10 hours). Existence of such trunk was informed to PW- 8 on telephone at about 19. 05 hours, by commercial Controller, Abhijaganj Railway station. Shri. Joshi gave this intimation in writing to Railway Policerbhopal. PW-9 Shri. Jatav had learnt this by a written memo sent to him, by Shri. R. K. Arora, Train Ticket examiner (TTE) , who had informed that, blood was flowing out from the said black coloured trunk. ASI Someshwar Mishra (PW-11) , had swung into action on receipt of communication (Exhibit 62) from PW-8 Balkrushna Joshi. It appears that, PW-11 drew the panchanama of the trunk in the presence of PW-9 Premchand and one Rajiv Chavan (Exhibit 66) and also seized sample of blood flowing from the trunk (Exhibit 67). ASI Mishra appears to have drawn the sketch of the location of the trunk in the train (Exhibit 70). The trunk was brought to railway Station, which had two locks, one of white colour and another of blue colour. Upon opening the trunk, the same was found to contain the dead body of a male. Upon opening the trunk in presence of Dr. Harsh Sharma, photographs of the dead body were taken. There was a lace around the neck, covering the throat. Blood was flowing from mouth and nostrils. There was a sari placed on the dead body. Dr. Harsh Sharma advised ASI Mishra to get DNA done, vide communication (Exhibit 71). After sending the dead body in the trunk to the mortuary, vide Exhibit 72. ASI Mishra registered A. D. No. 02 of 2002 under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Exhibit 73). ASI Mishra has also drawn inquest of dead body in presence of panchas (Exhibit 75). Of course, here the dead body is said to be of unknown male. The dead body was sent for post-mortem with forwarding letter (Exhibit-77). Exhibit-80 is the report by PW-19 medical Officer Dr. Smt. Rajani Armit arora, after performance of autopsy and she has opined that, "death was due to strangulation and is homicidal in nature". The death is said to have ensued 2-3 days preceding the postmortem. It is the claim of ASI Mishra that, he also recorded the statements of certain passengers from the same bogie, from which the dead body was recovered and it was revealed that, the trunk was loaded in the bogie at Ahmednagar Railway Station, by two boys about 25 years old. Shri. Mishra entered the entire episode in station diary, vide entry no. 3073 and true copy of this station diary entry is produced at Exhibit 74. From Exhibit-79, receipt of payment of cremation charges, it appears that Bhopal Railway Police performed last rites on the dead body. Another panchanama (Exhibit-81) is drawn by ASI Shri. Mishra, by which he has seized empty trunk, two teeth of the deceased, the ligature lace, clothes of the deceased, sari by which the body was covered, two coins of Rs. 5/- and Rupee 1/- denomination found in the pocket. When asi Shri. Mishra submitted all these seized articles and occurrence report to Station House officer (SHO) , The SHO Shri. R. N. Braru (PW-20) lodged the First Information Report (Exhibit-82). All the seized articles, as also the documents prepared by ASI Shri. Mishra, under section 174 of Criminal Procedure, 1973, including the photographs of the dead body (and also negatives) , were brought to ahmednagar Railway Police Station, by PW-18 shri. Ramesh Tandale, Police Head constable, as per order dated 8-11-2002. This dead body recovered at Bhopal was ultimately identified to be of Ambaji Adsul (real father of accused Nos. 1 and 2). In fact, two more dead bodies (of female) were earlier recovered at Daund railway Station, on the same day i. e. 25-10- 2002, from Pune bound Nanded-Pune Express. The details of recovery are available in the evidence of PW-21 Pramod Jagtap, the then psi attached to Daund Police Station, and PW-22 sanjay Bhujadi, who was on duty in Nanded- pune Express 7602 Up, on 25-10-2002. The train left Manmad Railway Station at 3.50 a. m. Sanjay was TTE for Bogie Nos. 1 to 9. Nothing abnormal took place at Kopargaon halt and till the train reached Ahmednagar Railway Station at about 6 to 6.15 a. m. The train left ahmednagar at 6.30 a. m. and stopped at next railway Station Akolner for crossing of the train coming from opposite directions. This was at about 6.50 a. m. During the checking at Ahmednagar Railway Station of all the bogies, Sanjay noticed a big trunk in Bogie no. S-4 placed between the two toilets. There were no passengers in S-5 and the enquiry with passengers in S-4 led to the conclusion that nobody was claiming ownership of the said trunk. On train reaching Kesthi Railway Station after Akolner, Sanjay apprised the Station master about the big unclaimed trunk in Bogie no. S-4 and on reaching Daund (junction) at 8.45 a. m. , Sanjay gave written intimation to grp, Daund Railway Police Station (Exhibit-132). White tin trunk was brought down to platform, when PSI Pramod Jagtap was already present, because of information given to him by Station Master, Mr. Kashyap. Shri. Jagtap got the trunk photographed. It was emanating dirty smell and blood like liquid was flowing from the trunk. The trunk was opened by breaking the lock, in presence of panchas, when it was found containing two female dead bodies, one of a woman aged 30 years and another of girl aged about 14 years. Both the dead bodies were tied with nylon rope. Those were placed on separate stretchers and inquests were drawn (Exhibits-31 and 32). After despatching the dead bodies for post-mortem, shri. Jagtap lodged FIR, which was registered as C. R. No. 43 of 2002 (Exhibit-125). White trunk, 7 photographs, clothes on the dead bodies were seized and deposited with the police Station. These dead bodies were subsequently identified as of Janabai w/o. Ambaji Adsul (step mother of accused Nos. 1 and 2) and Reshma Ambaji Adsul (step sister of accused Nos. 1 and 2).

(3.) It is not disputed that, Ambaji adsul was real father of accused Nos. 1 and 2 and accused No. 3 is wife of accused No. 1. Deceased Janabai was second wife of Ambaji and, therefore, step mother of accused Nos. 1 and 2. Deceased Reshma and PW-13 Sunil are the children born to Janabai, from Ambaji. Thus, they are step sister and step brother of accused Nos. 1 and 2. Admittedly, accused no. 1 was serving at the time of incident, while accused No. 2 Mininath was employed as driver with one Arun Kale at Ahmednagar. Sunil was studying in 5th standard and the entire family was joint family, residing together at Tekade vasti within territory of Hivare-Korda village, which is near to village Maikop. It is the prosecution case that, there used to be quarrels, in connection with the agricultural land and accused Goraksha used to demand partition of the land and other property. He is said to have also assaulted the father during these quarrels. At the material time, accused No. 1 Goraksha had returned home for Diwali. He had brought with him sweets (Pedhas). He is said to have offered these to all i. e. Ambaji, Janabai, Reshma and Sunil, on the night of 23-10-2002 and it is alleged that these Pedhas contained some sedative. After the supper, entire family went to bed. It is alleged that, accused Goraksha killed father, step-mother and step-sister, by strangulation and packed the dead bodies in two big metallic boxes, one was black and another white, which he loaded in the trains i. e. Goa-Nizamoddin express 2779-Up and Nanded-Pune express 7602-Up, which were recovered at Bhopal and Daund Railway Station respectively, as described hereinabove. It is said that, Sunil and accused Sunita required medical assistance on the next day, as they suffered vomiting and dysentery, presumably, as a result of food poisoning, because of Pedhas containing unknown sedative/poisonous substance. It is also claimed by the prosecution that, on enquiry about whereabouts of Ambaji, Janabai and Reshma, accused initially informed that they had gone to Ahmednagar for medical treatment and subsequently, he claimed to have received telephone call from the father, giving him a message that they were proceeding to holy place Pandharpur. According to narration attributed to accused No. 1-Goraksha, by PW-17 pandurang (brother of deceased Janabai) , goraksha had informed that such a telephonic message was received on the telephone owned by Balasaheb Sinare. It is said that, accused no. 1 hired Maruti van owned by PW-14 bapusaheb Shinde, for the purpose of carrying the chests containing dead bodies from the village Maikop to Railway Station, ahmednagar. It is also the case of the prosecution that prior to loading in the hired maruti van, the accused had kept one trunk at the residence of PW-7 Sakharam Nabge, a friend of accused, and another trunk near the electricity board D. P. of village Maikop. When and how the trunks were transferred from the residence of accused to the residence of Nabge and the electricity D. P. , has not come on record, by suitable evidence.