Despite admitting that the accused was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a Delhi court has sentenced him to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for murdering a fellow beggar without premeditation, presuming that at the time of committing the crime his cognitive faculties were fit.
The court also fined him Rs.2,000, failing which he would further serve six months of imprisonment.
Begged outside Kali MandirAccused Hasin Ahmed had bashed Sanjay’s head against the road over ownership of a blanket in January 2012. The incident had occurred outside a Kali Mandir in Rohini in Outer Delhi. The two used to beg outside the shrine and stayed there on the footpath.
Earlier, the court had stayed the trial when it was medically proved that the mental condition of the accused was not in a position to face it. After his medical examination showed that he was fit to face the trial and since the accused gave proper responses to the queries put to him by the court, it later resumed the trial.
Culpable homicideWhen the court rejected the amicus curiae submission for giving the accused immunity from trial, he argued for converting the case from murder into culpable homicide not amounting to murder, arguing that it had occurred on the spur of the moment over possession of the blanket.
The court admitted it. The police had earlier registered it as a murder case.
“Circumstances suggest that the act in question was in the course of sudden quarrel or sudden fight between the accused and the deceased. That being so, this court is of the opinion, therefore, that the offence made out against the accused Hasin Ahmed is under Section 304 Part I of the Indian Penal Code,” Additional Sessions Judge Rajesh Kumar Goel said while holding the accused guilty of the offence.
CompensationThe court also ordered periodic medical examination of the accused and providing him wheel-chair or artificial legs as per the jail manual and his requirements. For the deceased, it ordered appropriate compensation to his legal heirs.
