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Murlidhar Shivram Patekar v. State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 111 of 2008)Decided 25 Sept 2014
Criminal Appeal No. 111 of 2008
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice V. Gopala Gowda

Background

A husband and wife received life sentences for Asaram's death during a knife fight. They said he had raped the wife the previous evening and attacked them while they were going to report it. The High Court upheld murder convictions, rejecting their explanation and finding a planned attack.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court changed both convictions to culpable homicide under Section 304 Part II IPC and imposed ten years' imprisonment. Witnesses had arrived after the scuffle began and could not establish its origin or who first possessed the knife. The Court found the wife's explanation had been wrongly disregarded and concluded the fight arose suddenly without a plan to kill. The circumstances satisfied the sudden-fight exception to murder, with no cruel conduct or unfair advantage established.

Lesson Learnt

A death during a fight is not automatically treated as murder. The court must examine how the fight began, whether there was a plan or intention to kill, and whether the offender took unfair advantage.

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

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