SURESH KRISHNA KATKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SURESH Krishna Katkar, original accused No. 1 - appellant, has challenged his conviction and sentence recorded in Sessions Case No. 157 of 1992 by IX Additional Sessions Judge, Pune by judgment and order dated September 3, 1993 in this criminal appeal. He was convicted of an offence punishable under section 302 for committing the murder of Maruti Sidu Gade, brother-in-law (wifes brother) and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life.

(2.) THE prosecution version as emerges from the evidence on record, briefly put, is thus :

(3.) THE prosecution examined 12 witnesses to prove its case. P. W. 1, Anant Jadhav, is the Police Patil of village Nanded. He saw the injured lying by the side of the road and brought the injured in the Police Station and also lodged F. I. R. (Exh. 15 ). P. W. 3, Police Constable Trimbak J. Gaikwad, along with P. W. 1 brought the injured to the Police Station and thereafter took him to Sasoon Hospital. While on the way the injured disclosed to him the name of the assailant. P. W. 2, Shivaji Pol, is a panch witness of the spot panchanama (Exh. 17) and seizure panchanama of the cloth of accused No. 1 (Exh. 18) but he turned hostile and did not support the prosecution version. P. W. 4, Gangubai Maruti Gade, is the wife of the deceased. She also turned hostile. P. W. 5, Ravindra Jagannath Usrar, is the auto rickshaw driver who had taken the accused and the deceased at the spot. He also turned hostile and did not support the prosecution. P. W. 6, Ravindra Gaikwad, is on the point that while he was proceeding from C. W. and P. R. S. , he met all the three accused and gave them lift in his car. He also turned hostile and did not support the prosecution. P. W. 7, Mahesh Mathe, is the panch witness of Memorandum Panchanama of disclosure statement made by accused No. 2 regarding knife and seizure Panchanama of that knife. He also turned hostile. P. W. 8, Rajaram Retawade is the Special Executive Magistrate. He recorded the dying declaration (Exh. 30-A ). The notes appended by him at the foot of the dying declaration is Exh. 30-A. P. W. 9, Dr. Shrikant Vasudeo Ranade is a Junior Resident Doctor attached to Sasoon Hospital at the relevant time. He examined the patient after his admission and treated him till his death. He was also present at the time of recording of dying declaration Exh. 30. P. W. 10, Dr. Laxman Pherwani, Associate Professor, Forensic Medicine, B. J. Medical College, Pune, conducted the post mortem on the dead body of the deceased and he recorded post mortem notes (Exh. 33 ). P. W. 11, Bhagwan Yadav, is the Investigating Officer, who recorded F. I. R. given by P. W. 1 Anant Jadhav, Police Patil, and also sent requisition to the Special Executive Magistrate. P. W. 12, Mohanrao Mane, carried out the major investigation of the case. Prosecution also examined number of documents. The defence counsel did not dispute the genuineness of the documents like Panchanama of seizure of cloth of the deceased (Exh. 10), arrest panchanama of accused No. 1 (Exh. 11), arrest panchanama of accused Nos. 2 and 3 (Exh. 12), inquest panchanama (Exh. 13) and spot panchanama (Exh. 17 ).