RAHUL DNYANESHWAR VAIDYA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr. R. M. Daga, Advocate. For appellant and mr. Sonare, Additional Public Prosecutor for respondent/state.

(2.) THIS Criminal Appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 29-3-2003 passed by the 1st Ad hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Chandrapur whereby the appellant was convicted for the offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and was also directed to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- in default to further suffer rigorous imprisonment for two months.

(3.) PROSECUTION case in the nutshell is as follows : on the day of incident i. e. on 8-1-2002 Dadaji Sao (PW-1), his wife muktabai (PW 6) and daughter-in-law Poonam (PW-11) were present in the house. It is the case of prosecution that, two days prior to the incident, the municipal Corporation had cleaned the drainage and placed the dirty stuff in front of house of Dadaji. On the day of incident, the grand children of Dadaji namely Akshay and Sankalp were playing with the dirty stuff which was placed in front of the house. On seeing this, Dadaji set the dirty stuff on fire. However, dnyaneshwar (father of accused) came on the spot and started extinguishing fire, however, in the process, one burning piece of stuff fell on the clothes of one namrata. Dadaji questioned Dnyaneshwar why was he extinguishing the fire. Quarrel started between Dadaji and Dnyaneshwar on this count. It is the case of prosecution that, in the meantime, appellant Rahul came on the spot and started scolding Poonam (his real sister ). Quarrel took place between Dadaji and deceased Sanjay on one hand and Dnyaneshwar and appellant on the other hand. In this quarrel, appellant took out a knife from his pocket and gave a blow on the left side of abdomen of Sanjay, who fell down on the ground. Dadaji sent injured sanjay to hospital and went to Police Station to lodge First Information Report of the incident. On the basis of the report, Crime No. 3 of 2002 came to be registered by the Police Station Officer, Police Station, Ballarshah for the offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code against the appellant.