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A division bench of Justices Pankaj Naqvi and Umesh Kumar of the Allahabad High Court converted the conviction for murder under Section 302 IPC to culpable homicide not amounting to murder by applying Exception IV to Section 300 IPC.
The Court explained the Exception (IV) to Sec 300 IPC and noted all the 4 essential ingredients to be present, i.e. the overt act must be:-
The prosecution’s case was that a verbal dual took place between the victim and the accused followed by assault on the victim over demand of certain outstanding amount. On the same day around 6 PM the victim came across the accused-appellants. Accused Vijay Kumar was armed with a country-made pistol and his father Muneshwar Dayal with a licensed gun. Accused Muneshwar Dayal inflicted repeated blows from the butt side of his gun on the deceased and when the victim shouted, Vijay Kumar fired at him from his country-made pistol.
The Court observed that the deceased was unarmed and caused no damage or injury to his first assaulter, Muneshwar Dayal. There is no evidence against Muneshwar Dayal that established that he had any intention of causing any fatal injury to the deceased as he was using his gun like a lathi and so the Court held that his role will have to be treated distinct from that of accused Vijay.
The Court then applied the ingredients of the Exception IV to Section 300 to the assault done by Vijay Kumar. The evidence indicated the use of a country-made pistol by the accused Vijay in a fit of rage, which caused fatal injury to the deceased and also indicated that there was no premeditation to the murder. Thus the first ingredient was established. The court found that Vijay Kumar fired a shot at the victim “in sudden fight upon heat of passion” and thus the second and third ingredients of Exception IV to Section 300 were established.
The fourth ingredient is also established by the fact that the accused did not resort to any unfair advantage by inflicting any more injuries after causing the single fire-arm injury at the deceased. Thus, all the ingredients being established, the Court applied the exception IV of Section 300 and altered the conviction under Section 302.
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