ASHRAF HUSSAIN SHAH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant aggrieved by the Judgement and order dated 13th December 1993 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ratnagiri, in Sessions Case No. 91 of 1992, convicting and sentencing him to undergo life imprisonment under Section 302 IPC. has come up in appeal before us.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated the prosecution case is as under : the informant Suraj Paste (P. W. 1), Mahesh Tilekar (P. W. 2) and the deceased Harishchandra Nachankar were friends. On 20th July 1992 at about 7 p. m. they had gone on an autorickshaw to see places like Thiba Palace, Hanuman Temple etc. in Ratnagiri. At about 10. 30 p. m. the same day, they reached the rummy club of Adam Memon. situate near the new vegetable market, within the limits of Ratnagiri City Police Station, Ratnagiri. At that time the deceased Harischandra asked the appellant, who was present in the club, as to where Adam Memoir was. On that the appellant hotly replied that he did not know his whereabouts and he could search for him. An exchange of abuses and hot words took place between the appellant and the deceased and the appellant took out a dagger (knife) from the side of his waist and inflicted blows with the same on the head, neck and other parts of the body of the deceased. The informant Suraj Paste and Mahesh Tilekar became panicky and ran away from the place of the incident and went to Ratnagiri City Police Station, where P. I. Sonawane (P. W. 6) was present.

(3.) THE F. I. R. , according to the prosecution was recorded at 11. 40 p. m. on 20-7-1992 at Ratnagiri City Police Station by P. I. Sonawane P. W. 6 on the dictation of the informant Suraj Paste.