- (1.)This is an appeal filed by the original accused No. 1 who has been convicted by the Sessions Judge, Sangli, under Section 304, Part II of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 7 years for causing death of his. cousin Rangrao.
(2.)The appellant who is the original accused No. 1 is the father of the other two accused who have been acquitted. The deceased Rangaro was a cousin of the appellant. They are the residents of village Kapuskhed, Taluka Walva, District Sangli. Consolidation Survey No. 1146 belonged to the deceased Rangrao, while the adjoining Survey No, 1147 belonged to the appellant. Both of them had sown sugar-cane crop -in their respective fields and the crop was adout 2 to 3 feet in height. There often used to be disputes between the accused and the deceased. Both the accused and the deceased had residential houses in the village itself, but they had also temporary sheds to the west of the abovementioned field. In those sheds they used to the their cattle and they used to rest during the day and also used to sleep at night in those sheds occasionally. On the day of the incident, Rangrao had his meals in his residential house and he came back to his cattleshed. At about 4.30 p. m. he saw the accused Balwant bringing a headload of fodder from the side of his above-mentioned field. Rangrao thought that the "appellant had taken the fodder from his field and he, therefore, questioned him about it. The appellant denied that he had removed any fodder from Rangrao's field. Then Rangrao went towards his field presumably to find out whether the appellant had cut the fodder from his field., The appellant followed him with a stickle inhis hand. The other accused also followed their father.
(3.)The prosecution witness Shamrao saw this. He then heard shouts and exchange of hot words between Rangrao and the appellant. He, therefore, went towards that side and saw the appellant lifting Rangrao and dropping him on the ground. When he reached there, he saw the appellant was sitting on chest of Rangrao and his son Baba was holding the throat of the deceased and the other son Bapu was holding his feet. The accused then ran away. He, therefore, raid shouts. Other villagers came there. The prosecution witness Bhimrao ( P. W, 8 ) went to Islampur Police Station which is about 2 miles away from Kapuskhed and lodged First Information. Report (Ex. 18). The police came there and kept a watch on the dead body but did not record panchnama of the scene of offence as it was then dark. They recorded statements of some of the witnesses. On the next day, the panchanama of the scene of offence was made in the morning, and the dead body of the victim was sent to Islampur where autopsy was conducted by Dr Kulkarni (P. W.9) who noted the injuries and his opinion. He stated that the cause of death was asphyxia due to. suffocation because of pressure on chest which had also caused internal haemorrhage due to the fracture of the ribs. He stated that the external injuries and the internal damage was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death of humanbeing. The appellant was sent to the Magistrate for recording his confession which was recorded by Mr. Datar Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Islampur [ P. W. 12 ] on 30 th April 1975. After completing the investigation, a charge-sheet was filed before the Judicial Magistrate, First class, Islampur. The Magistrate, after going through the papers, committed the accused to the Sessions Court for a trial.