SHASHIKANT LAMINARAYAN SHARMA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BEING aggrieved by the order dated 6-3-2000 passed in Sessions Case No. 795 of 1996 convicting the appellant/accused, the appellant has preferred this appeal on the grounds mentioned in the memo of appeal as also orally canvassed before us.

(2.) IN this case the Court had appointed Mrs. Sonia bankapur as advocate to plead on behalf of the appellant who was unable to defend himself but was given legal aid. Today when the matter came up for hearing it was informed that Mrs. Sonia Bankapur is on long leave and would not be able to attend this court to defend the appellant. We therefore requested Mrs. D. M. Shah to plead on behalf of the appellant. She accepted our request and after careful examination of the record, made her submissions before us. It was with the assistance of Mrs. D. M. Shah and Mrs. U. V. Kejariwal APP we scrutinised the record and re-appreciated the evidence on record, which reappreciat ion disclosses the case of the prosecution as under :

(3.) THE accused was married to the complainant by Hindu rites and was living with her at the time when the incident occured. The incident is of 25-4-1996 when around 4 p. m. the accused took the complainant-his wife and their child of one year and eignt months for a sort of picnic in film city. After having a round around there for about three hours, they were sitting near a tree and the child was playing by the side of the accused and his wife. The intersay between the wife and the husband through a discussion which ultimately flaired up the accused who inflicted several blows on the person of wife by a sharp knife. On her pleading that the child atleast should be spared, he inflicted three stab wounds to the child of one year and eight months resulting the intestine of the child coming out of the stomach. He then left the complainant and her daughter there and went away. The complainant gathered her health and courage lifted her child, scraped for help which came little late. She narrated to the first available person for help that she was assaulted by her husband along with daughter. Police arrived and they were taken to the hospital and treated and by the grace of almighty, both of them survived from the fetal stabing inflicted by the accused and it was her misfortune to depose against her husband in court.