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Sunil @ Sonu Etc. vs State (NCT of Delhi)

Not available · 2024 INSC 727Decided 24 Sept 2024
Not available
Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice K.V. Viswanathan

Background

On the night of 28 November 2016, a verbal altercation between two groups in Delhi escalated into a violent attack in which the appellants and two co-accused allegedly assaulted the complainant Rahul and his friend Sachin with knives and sticks. Sachin later died from his injuries, and the trial court convicted the appellants Sunil @ Sonu and Nitin @ Devender of murder, sentencing them to life imprisonment; the Delhi High Court upheld the conviction. The appellants argued that the FIR was delayed and false, and that a cross-FIR filed by them the previous day showed they too had sustained serious injuries that the prosecution never explained.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the prosecution had indeed proved that the appellants caused Sachin's death, but held that the lower courts erred in convicting them of murder because the prosecution never explained the significant, undisputed injuries suffered by the appellants themselves. The unexplained injuries, combined with a cross-FIR filed before the complainant's FIR, suggested a real possibility of a sudden, unpremeditated fight rather than a planned killing. The Court therefore altered the conviction from murder (Section 302 IPC) to culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Part I of Section 304 IPC), and since the appellants had already served over 8 years without remission, ordered their immediate release.

Lesson Learnt

When a prosecution's own evidence leaves unexplained injuries on the accused, courts may infer that a killing arose from a sudden mutual fight rather than premeditated murder: this can reduce a life-sentence murder conviction to a lesser offence carrying time already served.

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

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