BALASAHEB CHANGDEO GHULE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, who is original accused 1 was tried along with three others, who are original accused 2 to 4 respectively (since acquitted), in Sessions Case No. 1 of 2003 for offences punishable under Sections 498A, 302, 304-B read with Section 34 and Section 201 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, (for short, "the IPC"). The accused were charged for having murdered Jayashree @ Jijabai (for convenience "the deceased" or "Jijabai") or in the alternative for having subjected her to cruelty for dowry soon before her death.

(2.) By the impugned judgment and order dated 25/8/2003, learned Additional Sessions Judge, Niphad convicted the appellant of the offence punishable under Section 498A of the IPC and sentenced him to suffer RI for a period of three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/-, in default, to suffer further RI for a period of 3 months. He was also convicted of the offence punishable under Section 304-B of the IPC and sentenced to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/-, in default, to suffer further RI for a period of 6 months. Substantive sentences were ordered to run concurrently. The appellant was acquitted of the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 read with Section 34 of the IPC. The rest of the accused were acquitted of all the charges. The appellant has challenged his conviction and sentence in this appeal. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the other accused as accused 2 to 4 respectively.

(3.) It is necessary to give the gist of the prosecution case.