Delhi High Court: Sanjeev Sachdeva, J. dismissed a petition filed against the order of the trial court whereby it had rejected petitioner’s application filed under Section 227 CrPC seeking discharge in a criminal case.
The case against the petitioner was that he along with the co-accused tried to intervene in a road rage fight between the complainant and a third party. The complainant was admittedly drunk at the time and slapped the co-accused. The co-accused called for the petitioner to bring the iron rod to teach a lesson to the drunk complainant. Thereafter, the co-accused attacked the complainant and he sustained multiple injuries. The petitioner was charge-sheeted under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) read with Section 34 (acts done by several person in furtherance of common intention) of the Penal Code.
D.N. Goburdhun, Advocate representing the petitioner contended that there was an absence of mens rea or common intention or conspiracy on part of the petitioner. Per contra, Meenakshi Dahiya, APP appearing for the State submitted that the petitioner had been rightly charged as aforesaid.
Relying on State of M.P. v. Saleem, (2005) 5 SCC 554, the High Court noted: “though common intention should be anterior in time to the commission of crime and involves a pre-arranged plan or a prior concert, however, intention is to be gathered from the act, conduct, relative circumstances, and the attendant situations that cropped up”.It was reiterated that common intention may develop at spur of the moment.
On facts of the case, it was held that the petitioner actively participated in the act by procuring the iron rod and handing it over to the co-accused. Therefore, it could not be said that there was no common intention among the accused. As such, it was held that there was no infirmity with the order of the trial court, and the petition was dismissed.[Manish Sharma v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2019 SCC OnLine Del 9031, decided on 03-07-2019]
