The main legal point established in the judgment is the reliance on admissible witness testimonies, recovery of the weapon, and medical evidence including blood group matching to establish the appellant's guilt for the offences.

JUDGEMENT :

Milind N. Jadhav, J.

1. This Appeal is against conviction questioning legality of Judgment dated 25.04.2011 delivered by Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Sindhudurg at Oros in Sessions Case No. 16 of 2009, convicting Appellant for offence punishable under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code (for short, “IPC”); sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for life and pay fine of Rs. 5,000/- and in default of payment of fine, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 3 months. Appellant is also convicted under Section 324 IPC and sentenced to undergo concurrent rigorous imprisonment for 6 months concurrently.

INCIDENTS :-

2. Appellant is the sole accused. Appellant faced trial for offence punishable under Sections 302 and 324 IPC for having caused death of his wife Mayuri by assaulting her with a weapon – Pal Koyta (scythe) on her neck and waist in the courtyard of his residence at about 7.00 a.m. in the morning of 12.01.2009 (first incident) and thereafter assaulting (P.W. 9) - Prakash Fati Gavas (neighbour) with the same weapon - (second incident), with the intention and knowledge of causing death of the victims.

3. Facts from the prosecution case which emerge for consideration are as follows:-

3.1. Kashinath Mukund Shetkar, resident of Zarebambar Village, eye witness to the incident and first informant (P.W. 1) along with Dhaku Gavas, eye witness (P.W. 8), heard screams at about 7:00 a.m. to 7.15 a.m. on 12.01.2009 originating from the residence of Appellant and rushed there and saw him assaulting his wife Mayuri by a weapon – Pal Koyta (scythe) on her neck, back and waist, in the courtyard of his house. Kashinath, Dhaku father of Appellant and both his sons pleaded with Appellant not to assault her, but after the assault on spotting P.W. 1 and P.W. 8 Appellant ran away from the incident spot with the blood stained weapon held in his hand and on the way, reached a grazing location 'Gadachi Shel' nereby where he confronted Prakash Fati Gavas (injured) P.W. 9. When P.W. 9 inquired with him about the blood stains on his hand and weapon, Appellant inflicted a blow on his neck which was blocked by him with his right hand resulting in causing injury to his right hand; Appellant thereafter inflicted two more blows on his back and ran away. Hearing P.W. 9’s screams, another neighbour Ramchandra Dhuri reached out to him and offered water to drink; by this time P.W. 1 and Pandurang Gavas (another neighbour) reached out to P.W. 9 and carried him to his house nearby. P.W. 9 was thereafter shifted to Rural Hospital, Dodamarg where he regained consciousness. Prosecution has come up with the motive for committing the offence namely the offence against deceased Mayuri due to Mayuri not taking care of the ailing mother and father of Appellant and mentally retarded sister of Appellant leading to constant quarrel between Appellant and Mayuri.

3.2. P.W. 1, first informant made a telephone call to the Police Station and informed about the assault. By this time, Police received information that Appellant assaulted P.W. 9 with a weapon and had caused injury to him. Police Station Officer Arolkar received telephone call from P.W. 1 and relayed the information to Nandkumar Vasantrao Deshmukh, Police Inspector (P.W. 13), who along with his staff reached the first incident spot in Zarebambar Gaothanwadi Village. In the courtyard of house no. 27, belonging to Appellant, P.W. 13 saw the dead body of Mayuri, wife of Appellant. At this time, P.W. 1 reached Police Station and recorded his statement and thereafter reached the first incident spot along with copy of F.I.R. and gave it to P.W. 13. Spot panchanama was prepared vide Exh. 76; Inquest panchanama was prepared vide Exh. 31 and dead body of deceased Mayuri was sent for postmortem, vide Exh. 75, clothes and ornaments on the person of dead body were seized. Vide Exh. 76, in the presence of panch witnesses, soil mixed with blood from first incident spot was collected, broken green glass bangles (Article 4), br