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Jagdish Prasad @ J.P. & Ors. v. State of Rajasthan

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 349 of 2012)Decided 26 Apr 2017
Criminal Appeal No. 349 of 2012
Justice S.A. Bobde · Justice L. Nageswara Rao

Background

In September 1998, a group of 10-15 to 25 persons attacked two brothers at their shop near Jankinath Market in Seekar, Rajasthan, assaulting them with weapons including swords, farsi, and iron rods, ransacking the shop, and abducting the two victims in a jeep. One victim, Bhebharam, later died of his injuries, while the other, Om Prakash, survived with a severed finger. Out of several accused tried in six separate trials, these appellants were convicted by the Trial Court under Section 302 (murder) read with Section 149 IPC along with several other offences, and the Rajasthan High Court upheld their conviction and life sentences.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that the main assailants who were alleged to have delivered the fatal and specific overt acts, as well as others who travelled in the abduction jeep, had already been acquitted by the trial court, with no appeal filed by the State against those acquittals. Examining the injury and post-mortem reports, the Court found that almost all injuries were on the deceased's hands and legs, with no specific allegation that the appellants (as opposed to the already-acquitted main assailants) had targeted vital body parts, even though they were part of the large assaulting group. While upholding that the appellants had indeed attacked the deceased who died of his injuries, the Court held a conviction under Section 302/149 (murder via common object) was not justified on these facts, and converted it to the lesser offence of Section 326/149 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt). Given the accused had already served between roughly 5 and nearly 13 years in custody, the Court reduced their sentence to time already served and ordered their immediate release.

Lesson Learnt

A conviction for murder through "common object" of an unlawful assembly requires evidence connecting the specific accused to the fatal violence, not just group membership: when the actual culprits identified with specific fatal acts are acquitted and go unchallenged, courts may scale down the liability of other group members to a lesser offence matching their actual, proven role.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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