The main legal point established in the judgment is that the prosecution must provide convincing and cogent material to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and mere circumstantial evidence such as last seen together or recovery of items may not be sufficient to prove guilt.

JUDGMENT :-

Sadhana S. Jadhav, J.

1. The appellant herein takes exception to the judgment and order dated 7th April 2016 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Islampur in Sessions Case No.51 of 2014 thereby convicting him for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to suffer RI for life and pay fine of Rs.2,000/-, in default, to suffer RI for three months.

2. The factual matrix of the case is as follows:-

On 22nd July 2014 at about 10.00 pm, an information was received by the Peth Naka Police Station that one male person is lying in a pool of blood in a shed. The Police Constable Rajendra Patil was deputed to verify the said information and thereafter Mr. Kamble and PSI Mali reached the spot. They saw one male person lying in a pool of blood in the shed of one Shivaji Hotel. They found him to be dead. An information was recorded in the Police Station. At that time, one Shamrao Tulshiram Pawar reached the spot and identified the dead person as his son Amol. The statement of Mr. Shamrao was recorded on the strength of which Crime No.154 of 2014 was registered for an offence punishable under section 302 of IPC against the unknown person. The investigation was set in motion. In the course of investigation, it had transpired that on 22nd July 2014 at about 7.00 pm the deceased Amol Pawar and his friends were consuming liquor. One Sachin Londhe had joined them. Sachin had left the liquor shop at 8.00 pm and had again visited the shop at about 9.15 pm. He was accompanied by Amol Pawar. They purchased liquor and then a quarrel had ensued between both of them. The cousins of Amol viz. Sudhir and Namdeo Kamble had seen the quarrel and had attempted to pacify them and asked them to return to their respective houses. Soon thereafter, at about 11.00 pm, it was learnt that Amol is lying in a pool of blood. Hence, Sachin i.e. the present appellant was arrested on 24th July 2014.

3. It is further the case of the prosecution that while in Police custody, the accused had disclosed to the Police that after consuming Alcohol, Amol was abusing him by referring to his mother without any rhyme or reason and therefore, the accused had assaulted him with a stone lying nearby. The Police had also seized the blood stained clothes of the accused.

4. The prosecution, in order to substantiate the charge against the accused, has examined 10 witnesses.

5. The accused had admitted the scene of offence panchanama, inquest panchanama and post-mortem report under section 293 of Cr.P.C. The material witnesses who would throw light on the prosecution are PW2 – Shamrao Pawar - first informant, PW4- Sudhir Kamble – brother-in-law of deceased Amol, PW6 – Pintu Pawar – person working in liquor shop of Suryakant Choudhari at Peth Naka, PW7 – Ananda Kamble – cousin of PW4, PW9 – Sanjay Patil and PW – 10 Rajendra Patil who was attached to Islampur Police Station on 22nd July 2014.

6. PW2- Shamrao Pawar happens to be the father of deceased Amol. He has deposed before the Court that on 22nd July 2014, Amol had left the house at 7.00 am with Nashir Kureshi and returned at 9.00 am after consuming liquor. At about 4.00 pm, he had again left the house with Nashir Kureshi. He did not return till 9.30 pm. PW2 had presumed that he must have gone to visit his wife who had gone to her maternal house. At about 10.45 pm, Sanjay Pawar informed PW2 that Amol was lying in front of Shivaji Hotel after consuming alcohol. On the spot, he saw Amol lying in a pool of blood and registered FIR which is at Exh.16. In the cross-examination, PW2 has volunteered that on 22nd July 2014, there was heavy rain and so some shops were closed. That the tourist buses halt at Manikandan hotel at night. It is elicited in the cross-examination that after the Police reached on the spot within no time Sudhir and Anand Kamble also reached on the spot. The Police had enquired with them but since nobody knew about the incident the complaint was lodged against unknown persons.

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