PANDIT VITTHALRAO WANKHEDE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal is directed against the Judgment and Order dated 7-2-2002 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Amravati whereby the appellant is convicted for the offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and is sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/- in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months.

(2.) Prosecution case, in nutshell, is as follows : vandana (deceased) was the daughter of Pandurang Balaji Gobade (PW 3). Vandana married to the appellant in the year 1994 (it was her second marriage) , vandana gave birth to two children namely Raman and Naresh. On the day of occurrence, the appellant stayed with deceased Vandana, who was residing in her paternal house at Net Pinglai. The appellant used to earn his livelihood by pulling rickshaw. On 22-6-2001 Pandurang (PW 3) went to the field of Ambadas for doing agricultural work. Deceased Vandana and her mother were present in the house. Pandurang (PW 3) returned to the house at about 6. 30 or 7. 00 P. M. There was nobody in the house. Neighbour told him that Vandana's husband had come and had visited his house and was under the influence of liquor. He was persuading Vandana to leave her parental house and to accompany him to his room. Vandana refused to oblige him and therefore, appellant started beating vandana and set her on fire. Vandana was admitted in the hospital at Amravati. On 24-6-2001, Pandurang (PW 3) visited the hospital at Amravati and met vandana. Vandana told him that her husband quarrelled with her under the influence of liquor, beat her and started loading his rickshaw with the household articles. She also disclosed that appellant asked her to accompany him to his room and when she refused to do so, he poured kerosene on her person and set her on fire.

(3.) On. 23-6-2001, the Special Judicial Magistrate (PW 4) recorded dying declaration of Vandana which is Exh. 29. On the basis of said dying declaration, first Information Report came to be registered which is Exh. 34. Vandana died on 30-6-2001. Dr. Swati w/o Madhukarrao Patil (PW 6) conducted Post Mortem examination on the dead body and proved the contents of the Post Mortem report (Exh. 40). According to the evidence of Dr. Swati Patil, probable cause of death was Septicemic shock due to 72% burn injuries. The investigating officer, after completing the formal investigation, filed the charge-sheet in the Court of the judicial Magistrate, First Class. Since the offence was exclusively triable by the sessions Court, the case was committed to the Sessions Court. Charge under sections 302 and 498-A of the Indian Penal Code was framed, contents thereof were explained to the appellant who pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed to be tried. Defence of the accused is of total denial. In his statement under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the appellant has stated that, at the time of incident, he was not present on the spot and came to know about the incident when Vandana was already admitted in the hospital. He has further stated that Vandana was residing at her parent's house and the room in which he was residing was 11/2 km. away from the said house. Since the appellant was not paying money to her he was falsely implicated.