Eight years after he was convicted for murder, the Bombay High Court on Thursday set aside the charges and instead charged a 30-year-old man with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice P D Naik was hearing a criminal appeal filed in 2008 by the man, then 22. In January 2006, three accused were setting off firecrackers when there was an altercation between them and one more person, who died thereafter. In May 2008, a Sessions Court acquitted two of the accused and charged the third under IPC section 302 (punishment for murder).
The defence told the bench that the evidence produced in court was self-contradictory and that the main accused stabbed the victim once in the abdominal region, whereas the post-mortem report clearly mentioned that there were three stab injuries on the person of the deceased.
The court held, “There are some inconsistencies in the evidence of the eye witnesses’ account of the incident in question. The inconsistencies relate to manner of assault, presence of some of the witnesses, number of injuries caused. After taking into consideration in totality the evidence placed on record, it cannot be safely held that the appellant was responsible for inflicting the stab injury on the person of the deceased. We find that the appellant’s assault on the deceased is not intended to cause such a bodily injury which would result in his death.”
The order said, “In view of the nature of evidence brought on record, we are of the view that the conviction and sentence imposed under Section 302 of the IPC is required to be substituted to a lesser offence and that the appellant could be convicted and sentenced for the offence punishable under Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC by substituting the order of conviction and sentence awarded by the trial court.”
