B.R.GAVAI,J. - (1.) This appeal assails the judgment and order delivered by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Appeal No. 46 of 2005, thereby dismissing the appeal of the appellant and maintaining the conviction and sentence of the appellant as passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Islampur in Sessions Case No. 39 of 2003 for offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (For short 'IPC').
(2.) The prosecution case in brief as could be gathered from the material placed on record is as under:- Deceased Jayashree was married to the accused prior to about 8 or 9 years from the date of the incident. They were blessed with two issues. PW-3-Anandibai is the mother of deceased. PW-5-Ramchandra Chintappa is the brother of the appellant, who was residing separately in different part of the same house. It is the case of the prosecution, that the appellant was addicted to liquor and used to abuse and beat the deceased forcing her to get money from her mother. On the fateful night of 23rd March 2003, the accused and deceased went to sleep in their house. At the dawn of 24th March 2003, PW-5 gave a call to the appellant, so that they could go to their field for harvesting jawar crop. The accused opened the door and expressed his inability to accompany him to the field stating, that Jayashree had committed suicide by hanging. PW-4-Ramchandra Shankar resides near the house of the appellant as well as PW-5. PW-5 informed PW-4 about the incident. PW-5 went to the village Panumbre to inform the mother of deceased and other relatives about the incident. PW-5 went to Kokrud Police Station and gave information about death of the deceased. On the basis of information received from PW-5, initially Ad No.13/2003 came to be registered. Subsequently, crime came to be registered for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC. As per the advance death certificate, the probable cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation. The charge-sheet came to be filed before the jurisdictional Magistrate, First Class.
(3.) The case was committed to the learned Sessions Judge. Charge was framed for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC. The appellant pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. At the conclusion of the trial, the learned trial judge convicted the accused for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. Being aggrieved thereby, the appellant preferred an appeal before the High Court, which came to be dismissed. Hence, the present appeal.;