TUKARAM DATTARAO SONTAKKE Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Criminal Appeal No. 306 of 2013 is an appeal by the accused under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure against his conviction in Sessions Trial No. 16 of 2012 from the file of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Basmathnagar, District Hingoli for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentence of R.I. for life and fine of Rs. 1,000/- and in default of payment of fine R.I. for six months, for each of the two murders.

(2.) The State has preferred Criminal Appeal No. 91 of 2014 under Section 377 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for enhancement of the sentence. Therefore we are disposing of both these Criminal Appeals by this common judgment.

(3.) Shorn of unnecessary details, the prosecution case as can be made out from the charge-sheet and the evidence laid before the learned Additional Sessions Judge can be summarised as under: Deceased Janardhan is the brother of the informant Chagan (PW-1). They are the residents of the village Kaudgaon, Tq. Basmath. Their parents also stay with them. They have agricultural land at village Kaudgaon. Some of which is irrigated. They had constructed couple of rooms in the field for storing agricultural instruments and fertilizers. There is a swing tied to a mango tree near these two rooms. This entire premises is described by the prosecution witnesses as 'Akhada'. The appellant was working as an agricultural labourer with these brothers couple of years prior to the incident. Even his wife was working as an agricultural labourer in the field of these brothers. It has also come on record that even on the eventful day she was working in the field of these brothers. It is alleged that the appellant was suspecting that deceased Janardhan was having illicit relations with his wife.