TULSIDAS LAKADU SHENDE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved by the Judgment and Order of conviction passed by learned Sessions Judge, Bhandara, dated 26th June, 2014 in Sessions Trial No. 1 of 2013, thereby convicting the appellant of the offence punishable under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, and sentencing him to suffer Life Imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default, to undergo further Rigorous Imprisonment for two months, the appellant is before this Court.

(2.) When Eknath Gadpayale (PW 9) was on duty at Police Station, Sakoli, in the night between 23rd and 24th September, 2012, between 2.30 and 2.45 a.m., Ganpat Narayan Thakre (PW 1) came to the Police Station with his grand-sons, Sumedh and Umesh. He lodged his report (Exh.19). On the basis of the oral report, Eknath Gadpayle registered a crime for the offence punishable under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, against the appellant vide Crime No. 109/12. The printed First Information Report is at Exh.20.

(3.) The report of Ganpat (PW 1) states that he was having one daughter, Lata, who was married with the appellant prior to eighteen years ago. From the said wedlock, she was having two sons, Sumedh, aged about 16 years, and Umesh, aged about 14 years. Since last four-five years, appellant, Tulsidas, started ill-treating Lata on trivial issues, and also used to assault her. That led Lata to come to the house of the first informant along with her two sons at village Kumbhali. She stayed there for about 25 days. At the time of Pola festival, the wife of the first informant reached Lata to her matrimonial house along with her two sons. It was also reported in the First Information Report that the appellant used to doubt the chastity of Lata and on that account, he used to beat her. The First Information Report further stated that he got the knowledge about the death of his daughter and, therefore, he accompanied by his wife and son, Ganesh, came to the house of the appellant. That time, he noticed that Lata was lying in a dead condition with serious injury on her head and when he made enquiries with his grand-sons, Sumedh and Umesh, he came to know that the appellant, their father, gave an axe blow, resulting into Lata's death.