'Sudden Fight, No Premeditation': Rajasthan High Court Alters Husband's Murder Conviction For Throttling Pregnant Wife To Culpable Homicide

Rajasthan High Court has ordered the release of a man who was serving life imprisonment for last 10 years, after being convicted for murdering his pregnant wife.

The division bench of Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Munnuri Laxman, while hearing the appeal of the convict, altered the charge of the convict from murder to culpable homicide and reduced his sentence from life imprisonment to period of 10 years already undergone in prison by him.

The Court observed that it was apparent from the material on record that the appellant had not premeditated the crime but had committed the same in pursuance to an altercation that led to a sudden fight and the commission of the offence in the heat of passion. Hence, the act fell under one of the exceptions to murder and amounted to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, instead of murder.

“The entire incident in question shows that there was no prior preparation for committing the murder of the deceased and therefore, the lack of the prior preparation to commit the murder does not fulfil the essential ingredients of Section 300 of the IPC, thus, the conviction of the accused under Section 302 IPC seems to be not appropriate.”

The facts of the case were that a written report was submitted by the father of the deceased alleging that his pregnant daughter was murdered by the appellant and his parents owing to an altercation between them. The altercation resulted when the appellant and his family members asked the deceased to file a case against her father and the deceased refused, following which she was throttled to death.

After commission of the crime, the appellant reached the police station and himself made an extra-judicial confession of killing his wife after losing temper. Based on his confession, the police recovered the body of the deceased and some other evidences from the crime scene.

The trial court convicted the appellant of murder sentencing him to life imprisonment against which an appeal was filed by the convict who was in prison for 10 years.

The Court further held that even though the appellant might have had the knowledge that the act of throttling the deceased would likely cause death, the probability of death was not such which could show that the appellant had the intention of killing her.

“The incident in question had happened without premeditation, but due to sudden fight and in a heat of passion and that there was no prior preparation on the part of the accused-appellant for committing the murder of the deceased. Since the component of intention on the part of the accused-appellant is clearly absent in the present case, therefore, the same falls within the definition of Culpable Homicide as provided under Section 299 IPC.”

In this light, the Court altered the conviction of the appellant from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and accordingly, reduced his sentence from life imprisonment to 10 years that he had already undergone till yet, terming it to be sufficient to meet the ends of justice.

Title: Amar Chand v State

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 224

Click Here To Read/Download Order