RANGNATH HANUMANT PAWAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this Appeal, the Appellant impugns the judgment and order of the IIIrd Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Pune in Sessions Case No.112 of 2000. He has been convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life.

(2.) It is the case of the prosecution that the accused resided with his wife Sitabai and his son Arun in the house of one Sitaram Gade. The accused spent Rs.10,000/- in cash for the marriage of his son besides presenting his daughter in law with gold ornaments on that occasion. He often demanded the amount of Rs.10,000/- from his son as well as the return of the gold ornaments. This led to frequent quarrels between the father and the son. Six months after his marriage, Arun left the house with his wife and stayed separately from his parents. He visited his parents almost every week when his mother often complained that the accused beat her and quarrelled with her because Arun had not returned the money and the gold ornaments. On 19th December 1999, the accused threw a grinding stone on his wife while she was asleep at about 3.00 a.m. The deceased Sitabai sustained a bleeding injury on her head. The accused informed his son Arun of the incident in the morning. It is the case of the prosecution that the accused confessed to his son about having committed the murder and asked him to save him. The deceased was taken to hospital by the accused, Arun and his wife. The deceased died on 23rd December 1999. The son lodged a complaint against the father on 20th December 1999. The case was registered initially under Section 307. However, after the death of Sitabai, it was registered under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) The spot panchanama was prepared and the accused was arrested on 20th December 1999. His blood stained clothes were seized by the police. After the death of Sitabai, an inquest panchanama was drawn up and the post mortem examination was conducted. The attached articles were sent to the Chemical Analyser who submitted a report stating that all the articles seized, including the grinding stone, the clothes of the accused and the clothes of the deceased, were stained with human blood.