JUDGMENT :

Urmila Joshi-Phalke, J.

1. By this appeal, appellants (the accused persons) challenge judgment and order of conviction and sentence dated 31.8.2019 passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Buldana in Sessions Case No.77/2016.

2. By the said impugned judgment and order, the trial court convicted the accused persons for offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay fine, as under :

Accused No.1 to pay fine Rs.3000/- and in default to suffer simple imprisonment for three months.

Accused No.2 to pay fine Rs.2000 and in default to suffer simple imprisonment for two months.

Accused Nos.3 and 4 to pay fine Rs.1000/- by each of them and in default to suffer simple imprisonment for one month by each of them.

3. The case of the prosecution in a nutshell is as under:

Accused No.1 Sanjay and Ganesh (deceased) are real brothers. Accused No.2 Manisha is the wife of accused No.1, accused No.3 Banti is the nephew of accused No.1, and accused No.4 Manglabai is the sister of accused No.2. The accused persons and the deceased were residing in the same house separately. On 12.5.2016, at about 4:00 pm, there was a dispute between the deceased’s wife Namely Varsha and accused No.2 Manisha on account of keeping clothes’ washing stone. After witnessing the quarrel between them, the deceased intervened and tried to convince accused No.2 Manisha. At the relevant time, accused No.1 Sanjay, the brother of the deceased, came there and abused the deceased. Accused Nos.3 and 4 also arrived there. During the quarrel, accused No.1 Sanjay got annoyed and went inside the house and returned armed with him a knife. All the other accused persons followed accused No.1 Sanjay when he approached to the deceased. As per the allegations, accused No.1 Sanjay got annoyed and gave blows of the knife on the person of the deceased on his stomach and other parts of the body. Due to the repeated blows, on the person of the deceased, the deceased sustained grievous injuries. He was immediately shifted to hospital. However, he was declared dead. It is further alleged by the prosecution that during the incident, accused No.2 Manisha and accused No.4 Manglabai thrown chilly powder on the person of the deceased as well as the prosecution witnesses and accused No.3 Banti took a bite to the deceased’s wife Varsha. Regarding the said incident, Smt.Shobhabai Sitaram Pakhre, the mother-in-law of the deceased, approached to the Dhad Police Station, district Buldhana and lodged report. The police registered the offence vide Crime No.63/2016 under Sections 302, 324, 323, 504, and 506 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

4. After registration of the crime, wheels of investigation started rotating. During the investigation, Investigating Officer had visited the alleged spot of the incident and drawn spot panchanama. During the spot panchanama, he collected blood stains samples, chilly powder, and a white colour polythene bag from the spot. He also obtained video shooting of the spot. He drawn inquest panchanama, seized blood stained clothes of the deceased, and blood stained clothes of the accused. The accused persons were arrested. Accused No.1 Sanjay has shown his readiness to make a memorandum statement. Accordingly, his memorandum statement was recorded and at the instance of the accused persons, incriminating article “knife” was seized. All the articles were forwarded to Chemical Analyzer. After completion of the investigation, chargesheet was submitted against the accused persons.

5. After committal of the case, learned Sessions Judge framed charge against the accused persons vide Exhibit-10. The contents of the charge are read over and explained to the accused persons and they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.

6. In support of the prosecution case, the prosecution has examined in all six witnesses, as follows :

PW1 Shobhabai Sitaram Pakhare, Exhibit-18, informant;