Penal Code, 1860 – ss. 302 and 324 – Murder – Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon or means – Right of private defence, if applicable – On facts, morning incident wherein quarrel between the complainant and accused on account of blocking the way and accused persons hurled abuses to her – In the evening, the complainant informed her father about the incident, the father-victim went to the house of accused persons to enquire, wherein he was assaulted by the accused persons, resulting in his death – Complainant, her brother and mother followed the victim and witnessed the attack – Accused no. 1 convicted and sentenced for offence punishable u/s. 302, and accused no. 2 and 4 u/ss. 324 and
326 and others u/s. 323, by the courts below – Interference: Held: On the assessment of the evidence of the prosecution, it reveals that though there was a verbal exchange between the victim and the accused persons, but not in the form of a provocation by the victim to the accused – Evidence clearly show that that there was a dispute on account of the pathway; that the victim was alone, he went to the house of the accused persons to make an inquiry, but he had not entered in the house and on the contrary, accused persons armed with stick, chopper and stone attacked the victim; and that neither the complainant nor her brother carried any weapon – Evidence of the injured eyewitnesses shows that the intention of the accused was to do away with the victim – If right of private defence is applied and the facts are appreciated, it is clear that the victim was unarmed, whereas the accused persons who were armed led a brutal attack on the victim by stick, by koita and stone – High Court rightly upheld the judgment and order of trial court, thus, does not call for interference. [Paras 28-34, 36]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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