DHANANJAY NAMDEO KHARADE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANTS were tried for committing murder of Manisha wife of appellant No. 1 Dhananjay as their demand for Rs. 25,000/- for purchasing cows was not satisfied by her parents and for throwing her dead body in to the well for causing disappearance of evidence. Third additional Ad-hoc Sessions Judge, ahmednagar, convicted the appellants for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 498-A r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC for short) but acquitted them for the offence punishable under Section 201 of IPC. For the first offence the appellants are sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs. 1000/- each, in default, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months each. For the second offence they are sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay fine of Rs. 500/- each, in default, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three months each. The order is impugned by the appellants in the present appeal.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated the prosecution case is that deceased Manisha married Dhananjay namdeo Kharade (appellant No. 1) in the year 1996. After the marriage she started living with her father-in-law Namdeo (appellant No. 2), mother-in-law Suman (appellant No. 3) and her husband at her matrimonial house at village Khed, Taluka karjat; District Ahmednagar. Six months after the marriage, appellants started making demands for money on one pretext or the other. About two years prior to the incident, appellants used to demand Rs. 25,000/- for purchasing cows. As the demand for money was not satisfied, the appellants were torturing Manisha. Whenever she visited her parents, Manisha were acquainting her father Ramesh (P. W. 2), her mother and relatives, of her plight. On 8th november 2004, at about 8. 45 in the morning, Ramesh received message regarding death of Manisha from neighbour Namdeo kshirsagar. On receipt of the message, ramesh his wife and relatives immediately started for Khed in a hired jeep. Vilas (P. W. 3) cousin of Ramesh went ahead on motor cycle. When he reached matrimonial house of Manisha, Vilas saw injuries on the neck and other parts of the body of the deceased. The appellants were making haste for cremation, thus, Vilas went to Karjat Police station and reported the death of Manisha. On the basis of this information Goraksh bhos (P. W. 7) registered A. D. No. 42 of 2004 under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal procedure at about 4. 30 p. m.

(3.) ON reaching Khed at about 2. 00 p. m. Ramesh and his relatives saw dead body of manisha in veranda of the house and noticed semi-circular injury around the neck indicating that the death was not accidental. Ramesh thus went to Karjat and filed complaint with the Police. PSO recorded the fir (Ex. 27) and registered offence punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC against the appellants. After registration of the offence, PSI Prakash Khandekar (P. W. 8)took over the investigation. He visited house of the appellants; held inquest (Ex. 25) on the dead body, sent the dead body for postmortem and arrested the appellants. During inquiries, the Investigating Officer found that the deceased was strangulated in the crop of maize near the house and the dead body was thrown in the nearby well. He, therefore, visited scene of occurrence on 9th and prepared panchnama (Ex. 43 ). On 10th, appellant No. 1 made a confessional statement (Ex. 34) and produced nylon tether used for the strangulation, from garbage near the house. The rope having length of 4-1/2 feet was attached under seizure memo (Ex. 35 ). Dr. Subhash Shinde (P. W. 6) performed autopsy. On noticing the injuries on the neck and fracture of thyroid horn, he concluded that the death is caused by strangulation. He accordingly prepared postmortem report (Ex. 38) giving the cause of death as asphyxia due to strangulation. On completion of the investigation, charge-sheet was filed against the appellants.