STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. SHANKAR SAKHARAM JADHAV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS case is, I think, notable for the brutality -of a crime and the callousness with which the crime was committed. Five members of a family and a servant In the family died of injuries caused to them and the five members included a six month old child. The injuries inflicted upon these persons number 67, some of them being cither upon the abdomen or upon the chest. This is a shocking crime and will perhaps remain unsurpassed in its ferocity, but the Court's approach to the evidence in the case must be dispassionate and free from "prejudice and the examination of the evidence must be fair find just in fixing the guilt upon the accused persons and in this connection, we will bear in mind the observations made by the Supreme Court in the case of Kashmira Singh State of Madhya pradesh, 1952 SCR 526: (AIR 1952 SC 159) (A ). There their Lordships observed as follows: "where the murder committed is a particularly cruel and revolting one, it is necessary to examine the evidence with more than ordinary care lest the shocking nature of the crime night induce an instinctive reaction against a dispassionate judicial scrutiny of the facts and law. "

(2.) THE circumstances in which that crime was committed may now be stated. One Ramkrishna Keshav Joshi resides at Chafe, a village in the Ratnagiri Taluka of the Ratnagiri District. Ram krishna was given in adoption his name in the natural family being Govind and he is known as such. At the material time which is the 22nd February 1958 his family consisted of his wife Radhabai, his two sons Dattatraya and Shankar, Dattatraya's wife Sulochanabai and Dattatraya's three children, a daughter Shalini and two sons, Suryakant and Chandrakant. Shankar lives in Bombay. The family had on the material date two servants Bhagya Manjrekar, a permanent servant, and Balu Veer, a temporary employee. Ram-krishna used to spend his day time in the house of his natural father with the members of his family, but used to sleep at night in the house of his adoptive father. In the evening of the 22nd February 1956 Ramkrishna went to the house of his adoptive father, leaving the members of his family in the house of his natural father.

(3.) IN the village of Chafe there are about 250 houses. Of these, twenty houses are situated in a locality known as Maharwada. There are ten or twelve Knots at Chafe. Ramkrishna Joshi, Shri-krishna Shevde and Bhargave Puranik, being some of the Khots. Ramkrishna owns extensive lands. They measure 150 acres and are assess;d at Rs. 65/- After the abolition of the Khoti, inquiry was commenced in the village about Knot Nisbat lands and a survey was started in Dec. 1955. The persons concerned with the survey were residing in the house of Ramkrishna's adoptive father. Dattatraya was giving instructions to the Survey Officers on behalf of all Khots. Dattatraya was also ma-, naging the family affairs perhaps owing to the old age of his father Ramkrishna who had executed in Dattatraya's favour a Mukhtyarpatra or a Dower of attorney. Dattatraya was also looking to the Court-work of his brother Khots and at the survey measurement Dattatraya represented the Khots, while accused Nos. 1, 2 and 6 pleaded the cause of Mahars.