HANMANT PANDURANG LOHAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant (hereinafter referred as "the accused") was tried in the Court of Sessions at Satara in Sessions Case no.240 of 1998 for offence punishable under section 302 of the IPC. By judgment and order dated 29th July 1999, the learned Sessions Judge found the accused guilty u/s.302 of the IPC. He sentenced him to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.500.00 in default of payment of fine to undergo RI for three months. The said judgment and order is impugned in this appeal.

(2.) THE prosecution case may be shortly stated: The accused and deceased Siddhanath used to work as masons with one Hambirrao Bijargi. About two months prior to the incident in question, there was a quarrel between the accused and the deceased. On 25th May 1998 at about 12.00 a.m, the deceased went to the house of his friend Shaikh Mohammed. PW 5 Ambubai wife of Shaikh Mohammed was present in the house. She told the deceased that her husband had gone out. The deceased sat near the house of Shaikh. At that time, the mother of the accused came there. She started quarrelling with the deceased. She asked him why he had quarrelled with the accused. The deceased told her that the past should be buried. At that time suddenly, the accused came there and inflicted axe blow over the head of the deceased. The blow was given by the blunt side of the blade. The deceased became unconscious. The accused left the spot of incident. Ambubai - PW 5 and her sister-in-law put the deceased in an auto-rickshaw and brought him to his house at Bhivdi. She narrated the incident to the wife of the deceased, PW 1 Jagdevi. Jagdevi took the deceased to the Civil hospital, Satara. At the hospital, Dr.Arun Patil - PW 3 treated the deceased. The deceased was then shifted to ICU. The police arrived on the scene. First Information Report of PW 1 Jagdevi was recorded. It is at Exhibit-22. Initially, the police recorded an offence under section 307 of the IPC.

(3.) AT the trial, the prosecution examined PW 1 Jagdevi - wife of the deceased, PW 5 - Ambubai, PW 3 Dr.Patil who had treated the deceased at Krishna hospital Karad and PW 4 Dr.Subhash Patil who did post-mortem on the deceased. The details of investigation were given by PW 6 Vishram Surve, Police Inspector attached to Satara City Police station.