Last Updated on 07/08/2024 by wccexam Desk
Four decades ago, a minor fight between children over mangoes in a village in UP led to bloodshed among the elders of the house. In this case, five people were accused of beating a villager to death and later the court convicted them and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Now, forty years later, the Supreme Court has reduced the life sentence of three of them to seven years in jail.
While two of the five convicts died while the appeal was pending before the Allahabad High Court and the proceedings against them were dropped. The case dates back to 1984. The trial court had convicted all the accused of murder in 1986 and sentenced them to life imprisonment, while in 2022 the Allahabad High Court upheld the sentence awarded to them by the trial court in Gonda district of the state.
This is not murder but a case of culpable homicide: SC
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said, ‘Considering the totality of the facts and circumstances of the case, the nature of the injuries suffered by the deceased and the nature of the weapon used which is a ‘lathi’, we are inclined to accept the argument that this is indeed a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The bench said that it has come on record from the statements of all the eyewitnesses in the case that this is not a case of premeditated murder.’
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In its judgment, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court said, ‘Therefore, we are changing the findings of section 302 (murder) of IPC to the findings of section 304 part-1 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC, and thereby converting the sentence of life imprisonment of all the appellants before us to rigorous imprisonment for seven years. Each appellant will have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000, which they have to deposit within a period of eight weeks from today, if not deposited earlier. ‘ The bench had pronounced this order on July 24, which was recently uploaded on the website of the apex court.
A man died in a fight that took place out of passion: SC
The bench said that the amount deposited as fine will be given to the victim’s family and the responsibility for compliance of the order is given to the District Magistrate of Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh. The three convicts Maan Bahadur Singh, Bharat Singh and Bhanu Pratap Singh had argued through their lawyer Saksham Maheshwari that this is not a case of murder but a case of culpable homicide, as this case will come under Exception 4 of Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Exception 4 of Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code states, ‘Culpable homicide is not murder if this murder is committed without thinking, in a fit of passion, in a sudden quarrel and without the offender taking undue advantage or doing any cruel act in an unusual manner.’
This incident happened 40 years ago in Gonda district of UP
The apex court said the incident of April 19, 1984 was triggered by a fight between children over a mango, which unfortunately flared up when adults of the family also got involved, ultimately leading to the death of Vishwanath Singh, the father of one of the children. Vishwanath Singh was injured and was taken to a hospital in Gonda by bullock cart where he was declared dead and his body was subjected to post-mortem. Out of the five antemortem injuries recorded in the post-mortem report, two injuries appear to be fatal. Vishwanath Singh’s skull was fractured due to a lathi blow on his head. This injury caused his death. There were eyewitnesses to the incident, particularly three eyewitnesses out of whom one was injured.
Disposing of the appeal of the convicts, the Supreme Court said in its judgment, ‘During the trial, the eyewitnesses of the incident were cross-examined at length, but nothing came out that casts any doubt on their testimony. Under these circumstances, the fact that the death is murder does not arise. And the fact that the death of the deceased was due to the injuries caused by the blows of sticks by the appellants has been clearly established by the evidence placed by the prosecution.’ Advocate Saksham Maheshwari said that the convicts have spent a few years in jail in the case, but were granted bail while the appeal was pending in the High Court. They have been in jail since the High Court upheld their life imprisonment sentence on December 21, 2022.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)