MP HC Commutes Death Penalty To A Youth Who Killed His Mother Because She Woke Him Up [Read Judgment]

The prosecution case was that, in the afternoon of 1^st January 2017, at about 3:30 PM, Jhummak Bai woke up Ashok saying that he is sleeping till this time and then she went to the courtyard. He woke up and went to courtyard and started beating Jhummak Bai with a stick. Finally, in presence of relatives, he struck on neck of his own mother with a spade due to which neck and head were severed. He dragged her towards the fence and threw the severed head near that.

While confirming the conviction recorded by the Trial Court, the bench comprising of Justice Akhil Kumar Srivastava and Justice J.K.Maheshwari took note of the deposition of Dr.Ratnesh Kurariya and observed that one though the accused was not mentally unsound or psychophonic but was mentally disturbed and was not healthy as one should be as a normal human being.

"The deceased Jhummak Bai woke up the accused and the appellant-accused out of anger, in the heat of passion, without any pre-meditation assaulted the deceased and prior to assault neither any conspiracy was hatched nor any plan/design was made and the incident occurred suddenly out of impulse.", the court said holding that this case does not pass the 'rarest of rare' test. The court also took note of his young age and lack of criminal antecedents, and not incapable for reformation. It observed that he was mentally defective and the said defect impaired his capacity to appreciate criminality of his conduct. 

Commuting the death sentence and imposing life imprisonment, the bench further observed: "Though the offence is of murder by the accused-appellant of his own mother but cannot, in the circumstances, be termed as 'rarest of the rare' case. We feel that the case does not fall within the category of rarest of rare case, therefore, in our view, present is not a case in which extreme penalty of death should be imposed."

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