Deciding Authority: Supreme Court of India
Name of the Judges: Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice H.L. Dattu
Date of Judgement: 10 May 2010
Facts of the Case: Kailas, the deceased was residing in Bedre Galli at Georai along with his family. The house of appellant (accused) was opposite to the house of the deceased. There was enmity between their families. On 21.07.1996, at about 11.30 p.m., Kailas was sleeping in the front room of his house, his wife Kausalyabai (PW-2) and their children were sleeping in the rear side of the room. Balraje, the appellant had called the deceased to open the door. On hearing the noise of opening the door by Kailas, his wife followed him. When Kailas opened the door, Balraje pulled him out by holding his banian, as a result the banian was torn and came into the hands of Balraje which he threw away and then he gave a knife blow on the chest of Kailas. Thereafter, Kailas started running towards upstairs and called Rameshwar Burande (PW-1), who was residing on the first floor of the building. On hearing the commotion, Rameshwar (PW-1) started coming down. Balraje inflicted a knife blow on the leg of PW-1 and made him to fall on the ground. Sherya Mote (A-4) also inflicted blow on the chest of Kailas and he was thrown on the ground from the steps. The other three persons beat Kailas with wooden pieces. On hearing shouts, people gathered and the appellant along with three persons ran away in a jeep which was brought by them. The neighbours had taken Kailas and Rameshwar (PW-1) to the hospital at Georai in an Auto Rickshaw. Dr.Talwadkar, (PW-17), after giving first aid, referred them to the Civil Hospital at Beed as he found that the condition of the injured was critical. Thereafter, Kailas died in the Civil Hospital between 3.00 to 3.30 a.m. The complaint of PW-1 was recorded in the Civil Hospital, which is Ex. 35 and FIR was registered with the Police Stationfor the offences punishable under Sections 147, 148 and 307 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. The said complaint was then forwarded to the Police Station, Georai. P.I. Kendre, PW-19, had received the complaint filed by PW-1 at about 9.30 a.m. on 22.07.1997. On the basis of the said complaint, P.S.I. Gajare registered the crime and handed over the investigation to P.I. Kendre (PW-19). PW-19 went to the place of incident and had drawn a panchnama of place of offence (Ex.54). During the Panchanama, he noticed blood stained mattress, pillow, bed sheet, torn piece of banian, one chappal and a piece of wood were lying on the spot. He then went to the house of the appellant but he was not there. During his visit to the house, he found that one jeep was parked in the premises and there were blood stains in the jeep. He then attached the said jeep under panchanama as Ex.55. In the said jeep, he found a piece of plank used in the assault and one slipper. He had also seized a piece of stepney and pieces of seat covers which were stained with blood in order to send it to the chemical analyzer. Initially the crime was registered for an offence punishable under Section 307 of the IPC but later on it was converted to Section 302 of the IPC. After the death of Kailas, the panchanama of the inquest of the dead body was prepared which was filed as Ex.29. The clothes which were on the dead body were seized and placed as Ex.30. The postmortem on the dead body was conducted by Dr. Sudam Mogale (PW-3). The clothes of PW-1 were also seized. On 25.07.1996, the appellant and A-2 were arrested while they were traveling in a car. The said car was also attached under panchanama Ex. 43. The Investigating Officer found one receipt of Hotel Manor, Aurangabad from the car which shows that accused had stayed in the said hotel in the night of 22.07.1996. On 26.07.1996, during the interrogation, the appellant made a statement that the weapon used by him in the assault was concealed by him at a particular place and he would take it out if the panch witnesses and police accompany him. Thereafter, they went in a police jeep and the appellant took out one knife which was kept beneath Ashoka tree. There were blood stains on the said knife. On 31.07.1996, police interrogated Kailas (A-4) also and during the said interrogation he made a statement that he concealed the knife in the field. Thereafter, the police got the knife from that place. On 05.08.1996, P.I. Kendre (PW-19) then requested the Naib Tehsildar for preparing the sketch map of the place of incident and the map was prepared which is filed as Ex.61.
Issue: The prosecution had examined 19 witnesses and recorded their evidence. The Sessions Judge, by order dated 11.09.1997 convicted the appellant and three other accused, namely, Suresh Mote, Dutta Kale and Kailas @ Shreya Bhagwan Mote guilty for the offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC and sentenced them to suffer imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/- each, in default, to undergo R.I. for one month under Section 235(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The appellant and the other three accused appealed before the High Court. The High Court by the impugned judgment and order dated 17.04.2008 dismissed the appeal in respect of appellant thereby confirming the conviction and sentence of the appellant and allowed the appeal in respect of the other three accused acquitting them from the charge of offence under Section 302/34 IPC. Aggrieved by the said judgment, the appellant filed this appeal by way of special leave petition before this Court.
Judgment: Among the witnesses examined on the side of the prosecution, Rameshwar Burande (PW-1), son of the deceased, Kausalyabai (PW-2) and Rekha Gire (PW-4) were material eye-witnesses proving the involvement of the appellant. According to PW-1, on the fateful night between 11:30 to 12:00, on hearing cries of PW-2, he woke up and noticed the appellant dragging Kailas from the house and inflicted blow with knife on the abdomen. He also explained that in order to escape from the accused, he started running towards upstairs. In order to help the deceased while he was climbing down the staircase, two persons pulled him down by holding his legs and gave one blow with some sharp weapon on his legs, as a result, he fell injured at the bottom of the staircase. The presence of PW-1 at the place of incident cannot be disbelieved. Added to it, he also sustained injuries in the incident. One Raghunath Bedre, step-brother of the deceased Kailas and neighbor was examined as PW-12. He explained that the father and grand-father of the appellant were residing in the opposite house till 1990. He further deposed that on the date of the incident, he heard cries around 11:30 p.m. and he woke up immediately. He opened the door of his house and came out and saw the appellant and three others standing on the road holding knives and sticks in their hands. According to Kausalyabai (PW-2), she was at the house at the relevant time with her husband and at about 11.30 p.m. when they were asleep there was a call from outside, “Kailas open the door” and, thereafter, Kailas went and opened the door and she followed him. At that time, the accused asked him to come out, but Kailas was not ready and, therefore, accused caught hold of baniyan of Kailas and dragged him out of the house and inflicted blow with knife on the abdomen. She also explained that in order to escape from the accused her husband started running towards upper storey by the staircase and called PW-1 for help and while he (PW-1) was climbing down the staircase to help the deceased, two persons pulled him down by holding his legs and gave one blow on his legs, as a result, he fell injured at the bottom of the staircase. The evidence of PW-2 is supported by the evidence of Rekha Gire (PW-4). In her evidence, PW-4 explained that she was residing with her husband Dilip Dire in the house adjacent to the house of the deceased. She asserted that on the night, she heard a noise of jeep at about 11:00-11:30 p.m. and she opened the door on the belief that her husband had arrived. But, appellant and four others alighted from the jeep, entered the house of the deceased and asked him to open the door. She further narrated that the appellant pulled out the deceased by holding his baniyan and stabbed the deceased. Kailas was running towards upstairs by calling Rameshwar Burande PW-1. She further explained that it was appellant who inflicted one more knife blow on the person of Kailas while he was lying on the ground and thereafter, all the assailants went away in the jeep.
The analysis of evidences of PW-1, PW-2 and PW-4 clearly prove the involvement of the appellant-Balraje. Though some of the witnesses turned hostile it had not affected the prosecution case because of the clear and categorical statements of PWs 1, 2 and 4. Since all the three identified the appellant and his name find place in the First Information Report itself lodged by PW-1, the High Court was regarded as right to have confirmed his conviction and sentence.
Ratio: The court would be required to analyse the evidence of related witnesses and those witnesses who are inimically disposed towards the accused. But if after careful analysis and scrutiny of their evidence, the version given by the witnesses appears to be clear, cogent and credible, there is no reason to discard the same.
Decision: No merit was found in the appeal. The appeal failed and the same was dismissed.
By: Roopali Mohan, 2nd Year, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi
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