Bishu Sarkar & Ors. v. State of West Bengal
Background
Six men were tried for the 1995 murder of one Raju Bose and all were convicted by the trial court and sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal, the Calcutta High Court acquitted two of the six but upheld the conviction of the remaining four, one of whom (the man alleged to have struck the fatal blow with a sharp weapon) had his further appeal to the Supreme Court already dismissed earlier. The present appeal was filed by the other three convicted men, who argued they had merely been part of a scuffle and had not themselves inflicted any injury with a weapon.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court examined the eyewitness testimony and medical evidence, which consistently showed that the fatal stab wound was inflicted only by the one accused whose appeal had already been dismissed, while the present appellants were only alleged to have caught hold of the victim during the scuffle. The Court found it unclear from the record whether the appellants' act of holding the victim was intended to enable the fatal blow, and noted one witness was silent on this point altogether. Giving the appellants the benefit of this doubt, the Court acquitted them of the murder charge under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC, allowed the appeal, set aside their conviction and sentence, and ordered their immediate release (unless wanted in any other matter).
Lesson Learnt
In a group assault case, merely restraining or holding a victim during a scuffle is not automatically enough to establish shared criminal intent for murder: courts will extend the benefit of the doubt where the evidence does not clearly show the accused intended to facilitate the fatal act.