SADASHIV DNYANU SUTAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant was tried in the court of II Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Sangli in Sessions Case No. 74 of 2003 for offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code ("IPC" for short). By his judgment and order dated 30/8/04, learned Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge convicted the appellant and sentenced him to suffer R.I. for life. The appellant was also sentenced to pay fine of Rs.500/-, in default to suffer R.I. for six months. Being aggrieved by the said judgment and order the appellant has preferred this appeal. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the appellant as "the accused".

(2.) We may begin with the facts of the case. Saraswati Shripati Sutar, PW 1 is the resident of Kolhapur. Her daughter Meena got married to the accused about 16 to 17 years back. The couple has two sons namely Dhiraj and Suraj. The accused was addicted to liquor. He used to abuse Meena ("the deceased" for convenience) in filthy language and beat her. Due to this Dhiraj and Suraj were taken to Kolhapur for the purpose of education.

(3.) On 23/1/03 the accused beat the deceased after consuming liquor and quarrelling with her over a minor issue. After taking dinner the deceased and the accused went to sleep. At about 1 a.m. the accused woke up the deceased. He started abusing her in filthy language. He was suspecting her character. He told her that he will not keep her alive. He then poured kerosene on her and set her on fire. Nylon sari which the deceased was wearing caught fire. The deceased started screaming. Mohan Sutar, brother of the accused and his wife Shalan came there. They extinguished the fire. As no vehicle was available, the deceased was kept in the house during the night. On the next day at about 8-45 a.m. the deceased was taken to Civil Hospital Sangli. PW 5 Dr. Ananda More was on duty as a Casualty Medical Officer. He noted the history narrated by the deceased. The deceased informed Dr. Ananda More that the accused poured kerosene on her and set her on fire due to some quarrel. Dr. More noticed that the deceased had received 83% burn injuries.