AMBADAS CHANDRAKANT AARETTA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant was the sole accused in Sessions Case No.168/2014 before the learned Sessions Judge, Solapur. The learned Judge vide his Judgment and Order dtd. 03/12/2014 convicted the Appellant for commission of the offence punishable under Sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. He was sentenced to suffer life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000.00 and in default of payment of fine, he was directed to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for six months.

(2.) Heard Ms. Nasreen Ayubi, learned Counsel for the Appellant and Ms. Sharmila Kaushik, learned APP for the State.

(3.) The prosecution case is that the Appellant and his wife - Pushpa were married for about 16 years. The Appellant was a tailor by profession. However, he was not looking after his family. He used to disappear for months. He was addicted to gambling. He was neglecting his family. His wife Pushpa used to earn livelihood for their two daughters and a son. She used to roll bidis to earn their livelihood. The incident took place in February, 2014. A week prior to the incident, there used to be frequent quarrels between the Appellant and Pushpa. Their daughter complained about his behaviour to Pushpa's brother who met the Appellant and tried to convince him to behave properly. The Appellant behaved properly for few days but on 10/02/2014, in the night, at around 11:00 p.m., he again picked up a quarrel with Pushpa. He poured kerosene on her and set her on fire. Their children woke up. The Appellant did not make any attempt to douse the fire. He brought the children outside and latched the door. He prevented the children from helping Pushpa. He went away. The daughters then opened the door. Pushpa's brother was informed. He came to their house. Pushpa was taken to the hospital. The police were informed. Arrangement was made to record a dying declaration. Naib Tahsildar came to the hospital. He made inquires with the Medical Officer and obtained his endorsement on the dying declaration. He then recorded the dying declaration. At the end of the recording of the dying declaration, the Medical Officer again examined Pushpa and gave further endorsement that she was conscious and was in a position to give the dying declaration. After that, the Police Constable recorded her separate dying declaration after following the same procedure of getting her examined through a Doctor and obtaining the Doctor's endorsement at the beginning and at the end of the dying declaration. Pushpa succumbed to her burn injuries on the next day at about 05:00 p.m.