The Madhya Pradesh High Court has altered the conviction of a man from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Dilip Singh filed the appeal challenging the order dated 19.04.1995 passed by the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Dindori, whereby he was convicted for committing offence under Section 302 (murder) and Section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for committing offence under Section 302 of IPC whereas, for other offence under section 323 a fine of Rs.500 was imposed.
The counsel appeared for appellant (Dilip Singh) submitted that indisputably there is no iota of previous animosity between the parties. The incident had taken place suddenly. A small quarrel took a dirty shape. The Court below in the impugned judgment clearly held that there was no motive behind the attack/incident, the court order said.
A division bench comprising Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Prakash Chandra Gupta said ‘in our opinion, the Court below has committed an error in convicting the appellant under Section 302 of IPC. The element of assault by means of Penari is established but considering the factual background of the matter, we are unable to hold that necessary ingredients for convicting the appellant under Section 302 of IPC were available’.
‘Accordingly, we deem it proper to alter the conviction from Section 302 of IPC to Section 304 Part-II of IPC and impose sentence of 8 years’, the bench held.
The appellant has already undergone actual sentence of 8 years which in our opinion is sufficient and therefore, appellant shall be treated to have undergone the sentence of 8 years. The impugned judgment is modified to the extent indicated above, the court order said.
In short, the case of the prosecution is that on 07.07.1992 at around 12 noon, the appellant and co-accused Rajaram were shifting certain stones from boundary of the agricultural field. Govardhan Singh a prosecution witness asked them not to shift stones, in turn, Rajaram assaulted Govardhan by means of stones.
While the appellant assaulted him (Govardhan) by means of a ‘Penari’. Govardhan sustained injuries on his head and on the left side of the back. His brother Udal made an attempt to save Govardhan. The accused persons assaulted Udal as well.
Govardhan approached his father Heeraram and brother Murat Singh and informed them about the incident of assault. In turn, his brother Murat and father Heeraram reached the scene of crime and asked the present appellant and Rajaram as to why they assaulted Govardhan Singh.
Dilip Singh assaulted Heeraram on his head by means of ‘Penari’. Heeraram fell down and became unconscious. He was taken back to his home. Doctor namely Shankar was called from Dindori who treated Heeraram but Heeraram died in the morning of 08.07.1992. Immediately thereafter, the FIR was lodged by Govardhan in concerned Police Station.
The appeal is partly allowed, the court order said.
