- (1.) CHANDRABHUSHAN, Sheshnarayan and Gangabai who were accused Nos. 1, 2 and 5 respectively in Sessions Case No. 202 of 1987, State of Maharashtra v. Chandrabhushan and others, have filed the present appeal aggrieved by the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the 7th Additional Sessions Judge, Nagpur on 31-1-1990 whereby the accused - appellants have been convicted for the offence under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer R. I. for five years and to pay fine of Rs. 2000/- each and in default of payment of fine to suffer further R. I. for 6 months and under section sentenced to suffer R. I. for 1 year and to pay fine of Rs. 1000/- each and indefault of payment of fine to suffer R. I. for 3 months. The Additional Sessions Judge directed the substantive sentences to run concurrently. The original accused No. 1 Chandrabhushan married Mala in the year 1984 at Nagpur. The original accused No. 2 Sheshnarayan, original accused No. 3 Raju alias Raghvendra are the brothers of Chandrabhushan. The original accused No. Sau. Mangla is the wife of the original accused No. 2 Sheshnarayan. The original accused No. 5 Gangabai is the mother of the original accused No. 1 Chandrabhushan, and the original accused No. 6 Ku. Manjusha is the sister of the original accused No. 1 Chandrabhushan. The prosecution case is that all the accused persons reside at Lodhipura within the jurisdiction of Ganeshpeth Police Station, Nagpur. At the time of marriage in the year 1984 the father of the original accused No. 1 was alive and resided in the same house. It is further case of the prosecution that the original accused No. 1 used to look after the fair-price shop of the family and after his marriage he separated and used to live with his newly married wife Mala in upper storey one room apartment. The income of the original accused No. 1 Chandrabhushan was not sufficient to sustain him, his mother, brothers and other family members, and the original accused Nos. 2 to 6 frequently harassed and illtreated Mala. The prosecution case is also to the effect that the original accused No. 1 the husband and the original accused No. 2 his brother often used to beat Mala and Mala was subjected to humiliation and insult and the situation of illtreatment, harassment and cruelty had led to such an extent that Mala was driven to commit suicide and she got herself burnt in the intervening night of 14th and 15th April, 1987. Shakuntala (P. W. 1) mother of the deceased Mala having come to know of the death of her daughter, when arrived at the house of the aforesaid accused persons in the morning, she was not allowed to enter the house. Shakuntala went to the house of the accused persons along with certain other persons. Shakuntala went to the Ganeshpeth Police Station, but the report was not recorded and at about 5. 00 p. m. the police came to the house and recorded her statement. The postmortem was conducted and the cause of death of Mala was due to burn injuries.
(2.) THE Investigating Officer carried out the investigation and during the course of investigation recorded the statements of various witnesses under section 161 of Cr. P. C. Various letters and chits, which are Exhs. 49, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81 and 82. The panchanama of the spot of occurrence was prepared which is Exh. 31. The inquest panchanama is Exh. 32.
(3.) FROM the postmortem report, it is seen that the deceased Mala had sustained 95% burn injuries on her body, details of which were found as under : 17. Surface wounds and : burns are dermo injuries, their nature epidermal burn. position, dimensions head neck face- 9% (measured) and directions front chest- 9% to be accurately front of abdomen- 7% stated their probable Back of chest and age and causes to be noted. abdomen - 15% upper extrimity right- 9% left- 9% lower extrimity right- 18% left- 18% genitalia- 1% total burns area- 95% if bruises be present, what is the condition of the subcutaneous tissues? (N. B.- When injuries are burnt area shows numerous and cannot be redding there was mentioned within the sooty blacking of space available, they parts, present at should be mentioned on places, a separate paper which part around waist and should be signed ). abdomen spared from burning due to cloths as stated above in the postmortem report conducted by Dr. A. P. Dongre and Dr. V. V. Wase (Exh. 44) dated 15-4-1987 the cause of death is shown as due to burns and shock.;