Murder Trial

Source: Supreme Court

Why in News?

The Supreme Court (SC) has recently observed that the absence of an explanation for the injuries inflicted on the accused suggests that the prosecution may have hidden the true nature of the incident in the matter of Parshuram v. State of MP.

What is the Background of the Parshuram v. State of MP Case?

• The accused persons were arrested, and a charge sheet was filed in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class after completion of investigation.
• As the case was exclusively triable by the Sessions Court, the case was committed to the Court of First Additional Sessions Judge.
• Before the trial court, in total nine accused persons were examined.
  • They denied the charges levelled against them, stating that they had been falsely implicated.
• The prosecution examined twenty-one witnesses and defence examined two witnesses.
• Seven accused out of 9 were held guilty of the charges under Section 302, 326, 324, 323, 147 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) and the remaining two accused were acquitted of the charges.
  • All the sentences awarded to the accused were to run concurrently.
• An appeal was made to the High Court (HC), both the criminal appeals were dismissed and affirmed the judgment and order of conviction as recorded by the trial court.
  • Thereby, the present appeal was filed in the SC.
• The learned counsel appearing for the appellant stated that the prosecution has failed to attribute any specific role to the appellants in the matter.
• It was submitted that many accused persons had sustained injuries which were not at all explained by the prosecution.
• Reliance was placed upon the case Nand Lal and Others v. State of Chhattisgarh (2023), in which SC has opined that non-explanation of injuries is fatal to the prosecution case and the appellants are entitled to be acquitted on the ground of non-explanation of such injuries.

What were the Court’s Observations?

• A bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice BV Nagarathna, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra stated that “non-explanation of injuries on the persons of the accused would create a doubt, as to, whether the prosecution has brought on record the real genesis of the incident or not”.
• The court further held that prosecution had failed to prove that the unlawful assembly had the intention to cause the death of the deceased.
  • Therefore, the court altered the conviction from Section 302 to Part II of Section 304 of IPC.

What are the Legal Provisions of IPC Involved?

• Section 300 – Murder — Except in the cases hereinafter excepted, culpable homicide is murder, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or
  • —If it is done with the intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused, or
  • —If it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or
  • —If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death, or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.
• Section 302 - Punishment for murder - Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine.
• Section 299 - Culpable homicide - Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.
• Section 304 - Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder - Whoever commits culpable homicide not amounting to murder, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death; or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, or with fine, or with both, if the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, or to cause such bodily injury as is likely to cause death