STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. BHIMGONDA NAGONDA PARVATE PATIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the above appeals are filed against the judgment and Order dated 15th April, 1994 delivered by the learned Special Judge, Kolhapur in Special Case No.55 of 1993.

(2.) THERE were in all seven accused who were facing various charges under Section 147, 148, 341, 504 and 302 of IPC read with Section 149 of IPC and Section 3 (2) (v) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in respect of murder of Baburao Laxman Hegade, resident of Sulkud, Taluka Kagal, Dist. Kolhapur on 4th March, 1993 at about 7 . 45 a. m. in front of the house of one Seedgonda Veergonda Parvate on the road between Sulkud and Kagal. By the impugned judgment and order of the Special Judge Accused Nos. 1,4,6 and 7 were acquitted of all the charges which were levelled against them. The State has, therefore, filed the above appeal against the order of acquittal being Criminal Appeal No.7 of 1995. So far as the rest of the accused Nos. 2,3 and 5 are concerned they had been acquitted of the offences under the provisions of Section 3 (2) (v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and they were also acquitted under the provisions of Sections 147, 148 and 149 of IPC. However, they were convicted for the offence punishable under Section 341 read with Section 34 of IPC and were sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 2000/- in default to suffer SI for 15 days and were also convicted under Section 302 read with Section 34 of IPC and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Against the said order of conviction accused Nos. 2 and 3, who are real brothers, have preferred Criminal Appeal No.403 of 1994 and accused No.5 has preferred Criminal Appeal No.346 of 1994. As all these appeals arise against the judgment and order dated 15.4 . 1994 in Special Case No.55 of 1993 in respect of the incident dated 4th March, 1993 where all the appellants in two appeals and the respondents in State appeal were accused all these appeals are being disposed of by this common judgment. Since all these appeals arise against the common judgment and order, we had heard the Counsel from both sides at length in all the appeals. Mr. Chitnis appeared with Mr. M. S. Mohite on behalf of the accused Nos. 1,2 and 3 and Mr. Marwadi appeared on behalf of Accused No.5 and Mr. Rajiv Mohite appeared on behalf of Accused No.7. Mr. Mundargi appeared on behalf of original accused Nos. 4 and 6 . The learned Additional Public Prosecutor appeared on behalf of the State in all the aforesaid appeals.

(3.) AFTER the investigation was over the charge-sheet was filed and the case was committed to the Sessions Court and came to be numbered as special case and tried by the Special Judge in view of the charges framed under the provisions of the Atrocities Act. As the accused pleaded not guilty 24 witnesses were examined on behalf of the prosecution. P. Ws. 1 to 3, out of whom P. W. 1 and 3 are the brothers of the deceased have been examined as eye witnesses to the incident of assault. P. W. 4 is Vijubai who was travelling in the ST bus from where the deceased was made to get down by accused Nos. 2 and 5 . Another passenger in the bus was P. W. 18 who is also the vendor of the land which he had sold to the family of the complainant. P. W. 5 is the driver of the ST bus from where the deceased was made to get down. P. W. Nos. 6 to 9 are the panchas. P. W. 10 is Dr. Godbole who performed postmortem on the dead body. P. W. 11 is the Tahsildar who issued the case certificate in favour of the complainant and the deceased. P. W. 12 is the doctor who took the blood samples of the accused for the purpose of analysis. The prosecution witness Nos. 13 to 17 are again panchas. P. W. 18 is the vendor of the land and was passenger of the ST bus at the relevant time. P. W. 19 drew the map of the place of offence. P. W. 20 is the Head Constable who made entry in the police station diary which was treated as an FIR by the trial Court. P. W. 21 is the Head Constable who drew the inquest panchanama. P. W. 22 and 23 are again police witnesses and P. W. 24 is the Investigating Officer Survase who was PSI then attached to Kagal Police Station. The defence of the accused was of total denial. According to them they were falsely implicated in the case because of the previous enmity.