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Ram Naresh vs. State of U.P.

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 1037Decided 1 Dec 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 3577 of 2023
Abhay S. Oka · Pankaj Mithal

Background

In 1982, four men, including the appellant Ram Naresh, allegedly gheraoed (surrounded) and beat one Ram Kishore to death with lathis and an iron rod near Varanasi, after which the trial court convicted all four under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC, a conviction affirmed by the High Court. The Supreme Court had granted limited leave restricted to a single question: whether the appellant, who was one of the four men wielding a lathi but was not proven to have made any specific individual agreement beforehand, actually shared the "common intention" needed to fasten murder liability on him under Section 34 IPC.

Decision Breakdown

The Court reiterated that common intention under Section 34 IPC does not require a prior conspiracy or premeditated plan. It can form spontaneously, even moments before or during the crime, and is inferred from conduct such as arriving together armed, acting in concert, and leaving together. Relying on its own precedent (Krishnamurthy alias Gunodu vs. State of Karnataka), the Court found that the eyewitness account: that all four accused arrived together armed with weapons, surrounded the deceased on a co-accused's instigation, simultaneously assaulted him, and left together: clearly established shared common intention. The Court distinguished a prior ruling (Jasdeep Singh vs. State of Punjab) cited by the appellant, noting that case required some further act in furtherance of a common intention, which was present here since the appellant himself struck blows with a lathi. The appeal was dismissed and the conviction upheld.

Lesson Learnt

Common intention to commit murder can be inferred purely from coordinated conduct (arriving together armed, jointly attacking a victim, and leaving together) without needing proof of any prior planning or explicit agreement between the accused.

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

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