PANDURANG KRISHNA FARATE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal arises from the judgment and order dated 21-4-1994 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ratnagiri in Sessions Case No. 73 of 1993 whereby, the appellant herein was held to be guilty of offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (I. P. C.) and sentenced to suffer R. I. for life on account of the murder committed by him of his sister-in-law by name Suchita on 7-6-1993 at about 9. 30 p. m. at village Kongale, Taluka Dapoli, District Ratnagiri.

(2.) THE case of the prosecution is that the accused was married to one Pramila about 15 years prior to the date of incident and he had a sister-in-law by name Suchita who was brought up in his house from the age of 5/6 years. When she attained the age of puberty, the accused and his wife settled Suchitas marriage with one Subhash Salve a young man of village Kongale four months prior to the date of incident. Suchita went to reside with her husband in her matrimonial house. With the departure of Suchita, the accused started harassing his wife and his children as he was not feeling happy due to absence of deceased Suchita in his house and he started insisting upon his wife to bring Suchita back to his house. On realising that the deceased could not be brought back to his house, the accused tried to create ill-feelings about Suchita in her matrimonial house by informing her father-in-law that he had illicit relations with deceased Suchita. He also informed the father-in-law of Suchita that Suchita was as good as his wife and he had come to take her back to his house. This was followed by a meeting of villagers wherein the accused confirmed the fact of meeting with the father-in-law of Suchita and whatever that was told by him to the father-in-law of Suchita. The villagers therefore, scolded the accused and the accused prayed for pardon and promised not to repeat any such instance thenforth. However, the accused could not control himself and he continued to ill-treat his wife on account of inability to bring Suchita to his house. He even used some poison used for killing the rats and tried to get rid of his wife. However, on account of precaution taken by his wife, he could not succeed in that. Moreover, it appears that it was Suchita, who had alerted her sister regarding the preparation to administer the poison to his wife by the accused and this came to be known by the accused and he did not like the behaviour of Suchita in that respect.

(3.) ON 4-6-1993 at about 7 a. m. Anita Salvi along with the deceased Suchita had left village Kongale and had gone to village Tadil to fetch fertilizers. After the purchase of fertilizer from a shop of one Arai they divided the same into two parts of 25 kgs. each and left for their village with the said bundles on their respective heads. They halted at one or two places to take rest and reached the village at about 9. 20 a. m. walking down the way in between the houses of Ramchandra Vithal Salvi and Ramesh Ravji Salvi. Anita noticed that the accused coming from front side and proceeding towards her rear side from her left side. At that time the accused was holding a weapon in his hand known as scythe. At that time deceased Suchita was following the said lady by name Anita and was at a distance of 10 paces behind her. All of a sudden Anita heard shouts of Suchita and she turned back to see what was the matter. She saw that the accused was assaulting Suchita with scythe on her left side of the body, abdomen and below right ear. She also noticed the accused delivering scythe blows on the head and other parts of the body of Suchita. She also saw the deceased Suchita falling down on the ground in the pool of blood. Seeing the situation the said Anita got scared and dropped fertilizer bag on the spot itself and she ran away towards the house of Suchita and informed Chandrabhaga Ramchandra Salvi, the cousin mother-in-law of the deceased Suchita about the incident. She also reported the incident to Shantaram Salvi and thereafter Krishna Salvi, the Police Patil of village Kongale. On receipt of the said information the said Police Patil rushed to the spot and on inquiry with the deceased by the Police Patil, it was disclosed to him by deceased Suchita that the accused had assaulted her. The Police Patil immediately rushed to village Kongale from where he contacted Dapoli Police Station and informed about the incident. The Head Constable Manohar Shinde thereupon proceeded towards the scene of offence and after recording the complaint from Anita Salvi forwarded the same to the Police Station, Dapoli for registration of the offence. That followed further investigation in the matter, including the recording of panchanama of scene of offence, the inquest panchanama, the statement of witnesses, the post-mortem examination of the deceased and further medical examination of the blood of the deceased as well as of the accused and of the various articles seized during the course of investigation including scythe which was recovered at the instance of the accused.