Madhya Pradesh High Court: S.C. Sharma, J. allowed a criminal appeal, filed against the order of conviction under Ss. 304, 323 and 149 of IPC, 1860 passed by Trial Court.
Prosecution narrated that, daughter of appellant got sick one day; he suspected that deceased and his wife had practiced ‘witchcraft’ on her. To take revenge of such alleged act of the deceased, the appellant along with others assaulted the deceased along with his family. Deceased lodged an FIR under relevant sections of IPC against the accused. After the alleged FIR was lodged, police performed the medical examination of the victim, recorded the statements of witnesses and also prepared a spot map. Prosecution submitted that, the victim during his treatment, ten days after assault died as he suffered grievous hurt which resulted in his death which is also stated in panchnama and postmortem report. Eventually accused was duly arrested.
All witnesses along with the Medical Officer testified against the appellant and had narrated the crime in brief. The medical examination report stated that injuries were caused by heavy, hard and blunt objects and, Cause of death of the injured was cardio respiratory failure as a result of multiple injuries over the body.
Learned counsel for the appellants, Siddharth Jain, contended that there was an anomaly in the statements of the witnesses on the point that which accused assaulted the deceased and other injured persons. He further contended that appellants were not guilty and were falsely implicated in the aforementioned case. He argued that the testimony of witnesses were not in conformity with each other as to which respondent inflicted injuries to the deceased.
The Court observed that the injuries could not have been caused on account of an accident and were not self-inflicted, and therefore, the death of the deceased was neither accidental nor suicidal, hence, it was homicidal in nature. Court stated that, appellant gave a blow of Tangiya (axe) on the non-vital part of the deceased, therefore, it would be apparent that he has assaulted the deceased, and therefore, it cannot be said that there was no intention on the part of the appellant to kill the deceased. Court held that the trial court has not committed any error in convicting the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 304 (II) IPC for causing culpable homicide. It was established based upon the evidence that he inflicted grievous injuries to the wife of deceased also, and therefore, his conviction under relevant sections does not warrant any interference by Court. The participation of the other co-accused persons has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt; hence, offence under Sections 147 and 148 automatically goes.[Anokhilal v. State of M.P., 2019 SCC OnLine MP 842, decided on 14-05-2019]
