Kishore Bhadke vs State Of Maharashtra

2. The prosecution case is that, on 10th May 2003, Shriniwas son of Wasudeorao Tonpe lodged a report (Exh.154) that his elder brother Raman has gone missing since morning of 8th May 2003. On the basis of that report, a missing Register entry was effected by the Police Station, Narkhed, District Nagpur (Maharashtra). On the next day i.e. 11th May 2003 another brother of the missing person, Madan son of Wasudeorao Tonpe lodged a second report (Exh.68) suspecting that accused No.1- Nalini, her husband Vijay Dhpake, accused No.2-Rinku, and accused No.7- Suresh Chandra might have abducted his brother Raman in order to commit his murder. On the basis of this report, Police Station registered an offence punishable under Section 364 read with Section 34 of IPC against the named persons. Police Inspector R.B.Bansod (PW-17) was entrusted with the investigation of the case. On the same day, he called accused No.1-Nalini and Accused No.2- Rinku to the Police Station for interrogation. As nothing came out of that interrogation, the said accused persons were allowed to go back. However, on the same evening, he arrested both Nalini and Rinku and thereafter accused No.3 – Kishor, accused No.4 – Tarachand in the mid night of 12th May 2003. It is stated that accused No.2- Rinku and accused No.3- Kishor, during interrogation confessed that on 8th May 2003 between 1.00 p.m.to 1.30 p.m. they along with accused No.4-Tarachand and accused No.6-Satish with the help of accused No.1-Nalini and accused No.5-Arun had committed murder of Raman by strangulation in the cattle shed of one Nitin Rai. The dead body of Raman was thereafter taken away in a gunny bag and then thrown in a valley near “Deona Darshan Point”. Before throwing the dead body, they had removed the clothes and wrist watch from the dead body. They then burnt the gunny bag as well as the rope used for strangulation including some documents possessed by the deceased by pouring petrol at some other place at a distance of 10 km. before Deona Darshan Point. They also agreed to show the spot where the gunny bag, clothes and documents were burnt and the place where the dead body was disposed. Pursuant to the said revelation, the police party along with accused No.2-Rinku and accused No.3-Kishor proceeded to the locations disclosed by the said accused. Firstly, they showed the place of burning the articles from where the remains in the form of ash and a bunch of keys was seized. Thereafter, they proceeded to the other location where the dead body was found lying in the valley near Deona Darshan Point. The Investigating Officer R.B.Bansod completed the necessary formalities of preparing memorandum of statements of the said accused, Panchnamas, seizure panchnamas/memos, Inquest panchnama etc. of the dead body. The dead body and the recovered articles were then brought to Narkhed. The dead body was identified by the complainant Madan Tonpe (PW-1) at the spot i.e. Deona Darshan Point itself. The dead body was then sent to Primary Health Centre, Narkhed for post mortem examination. After the post mortem was conducted on the dead body, it was handed over to the family members/relatives for funeral. The mother of the deceased, Smt. Shantabai (PW 15) also identified the dead body of her son when it was brought to their house. The offence was then converted and registered under Section 364, 302 and 201 read with Section 34/120-B of the IPC. Thereafter remaining accused i.e. accused No.5- Arun, accused No.6-Satish and accused No.7-Suresh Chandra were arrested.

3. The Investigating Officer R.B.Bansod carried out further investigation. He recorded statements of the witnesses, seized the vehicle/Tata Sumo used in the commission of offence for transporting the dead body, recovered the wrist watch and gold ring at the instance of accused No.3 - Kishor and accused No.6 - Satish respectively. He prepared a panchnama of the place of incident in the cattle shed of Nitin Rai, seized clothes of accused No.2 - Rinku, accused No.3-Kishore and accused No.6-Satish and of deceased Raman. He then verified the bunch of keys recovered from the spot disclosed by the accused by applying it on the cupboard in the house of deceased Raman. He also arranged for identification parade of the wrist watch and gold ring. He seized some currency at the instance of accused No.6-Satish. The muddemal/property, seized articles, viscera etc. was then sent to the Chemical Analyser for analysis. After the investigation was completed, police report was filed in the Court of J.M.F.C., Narkhed, who committed the case for trial of the accused before the Sessions Court at Nagpur. The trial proceeded before the 3rd Addl. Sessions Judge, Nagpur, who framed charges for offence punishable under Section 364, 302, 201 read with Section 34 in the alternative 120-B of IPC. All the accused pleaded not guilty and to have been falsely implicated. They claimed to be tried.

5. Aggrieved by the aforementioned decision, accused Nos.1 to 4, 6 and 7 filed separate appeals before the High Court being Criminal Appeal Nos.367, 435, 444 and 452 all of 2005. The High Court dismissed Appeal Nos.367, 435 and 444 of 2005 filed by the concerned accused (Nos.2, 6, and 7; 1; and 3 respectively); and allowed Appeal No.452 of 2005 filed by accused No.4, by a common judgment dated 15th September 2008. After re-appreciating the entire evidence adduced by the Prosecution, the High Court in paragraph 44 of the impugned judgment summed up the circumstances which led to the finding of guilt against the concerned accused. The same reads thus:

that on 10.5.2003 Sanjay Kalkar again came to take back Tata Sumo and thereafter he never turned up.” After analyzing the other circumstances and contentions, the High Court concluded that the finding reached by the Trial Court that the dead body discovered from the valley near Deona Darshan Point was that of deceased Raman and that he met with homicidal death, was unassailable. The High Court also considered the circumstance of discovery of wrist watch at the instance of accused No.3, gold ring of Raman and cash of Rs.4800/- (48 notes of 100 denomination) seized from accused No.6; including the blood stained earth seized from cattle shed of Nitin Rai on 16th May 2003 under seizure memo (Exh.92) which as per the report of Chemical Analyser (Exh.151) showed human blood. Human blood was also found on the pant of Accused No.2 Rinku, which circumstance remained unexplained. Similarly, full pant and shirt of accused No.3 Kishor which were seized on 15th May 2003 from his house and on analysis by the Chemical Analyser it showed human blood, which also remained unexplained. After taking over all view of the matter, the High Court concluded that the complete chain of circumstances unequivocally point out towards the guilt of accused No.1- Nalini, accused No.2 -Rinku, accused No.3- Kishore Bhadke, and accused No.6- Satish Bansod, excluding any hypothesis consistent with their innocence. Accordingly, they were convicted for offence punishable under Section 364/120-B, 302/120-B and 201/120-B of the IPC. The finding of guilt reached against these accused by the Trial Court was once again reiterated by the High Court.

3. The recovery of gold ring at the instance of accused No.6 is doubtful. The prosecution has not established the special identity of gold ring and it has come on record that such gold rings are freely available in the open market. Further, no blood stains or any incriminatory evidence was noticed on the gold ring. The accused No.6 was arrested on 13th May 2003 on which day his statement was also recorded. The recovery of gold ring, however, is on 18th May 2003, while the accused No.6 was in police custody. Similarly, the cash amount recovered at the instance of accused No.6 was of no avail to the prosecution. It was a paltry amount as compared to the amount withdrawn by Raman on 8th May 2003 from the Bank. Further, there is no evidence that the currency recovered from accused No.6 was the same as withdrawn by the deceased Raman from the Bank. No blood stains were found on the clothes recovered at the instance of accused No.6. In the confession statement of accused No.2, there is no mention of gold ring. The signature of accused No.6 was obtained on a blank paper and it was then used as a memorandum under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. Recovery of clothes as well as gold ring attributed to the accused No.6 was doubtful. Reliance is placed by the counsel on Gulab Singh vs. State of U.P.[19] to contend that recovery of ring of deceased from the accused No.6 after such long gap and even if accused No.6 failed to offer valid explanation for possession of the gold ring, is at best liable to be convicted under Section 411 of IPC and not for the offence of murder. She submits that the accused No.6 should be given the same benefit as given to accused No.7, if not an acquittal as in the case of accused Nos.4 and 5.

41.    In view of the above, we hold that the appeals filed by accused Nos. 1, 3 and 6 respectively, are devoid of merits.

42. We accordingly uphold the finding of guilt as against these accused Nos.1,3 and 6 as recorded by the courts below as also the sentence imposed in respect of the offence committed by them.

43. Hence these appeals fail and the same are dismissed. Accused No.1 Nalini Dhapke, appellant in Criminal Appeal No.854/2010 and accused No.6 Satish, appellant in Criminal Appeal No.11/2015 are on bail. Their bail bonds shall stand cancelled and they are directed to surrender before the Trial Court within four weeks from today for undergoing the remaining period of sentence.