The central legal point established in the judgment is the distinction between culpable homicide and death by negligence, as defined in Section 304 and Section 304A of IPC, respectively.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J.

1. Invoking appellate jurisdiction of this Court, the present criminal appeal under Section 374 (2) of CrPC has been filed by the appellants herein calling in question the legality, validity and correctness of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 13.7.2016 passed by Special Judge under Electricity Act, District Balod in Special Case No.6/2015 whereby each of the two appellants herein have been convicted and sentenced in the following manner :-

2. Brief facts of the case as projected by the prosecution and accepted by the Trial Court are that:-

(i) On 20.4.2025 between 7-9 p.m. at Village Pond under Police Station Gurur, District Balod, the two appellants herein unauthorisedly laid naked centering wire at their agriculture field and flown electric current through it and Bhupendra Sahu, Tomesh Halba, Kuleshwar Gond & Nomendra Sahu, total four persons, came in contact with that live/naked electric wire laid therein and succumbed to electrocution on the spot.

(ii) The matter was reported to Police Station Gurur by PW-1 Dayaram and Merg Intimations in respect of the death of Bhupendra Kumar, Nomendra Sahu, Kuleshwar Gond & Tomesh Halba were recorded vide Exhibits P-1 to P-4. On the basis of Merg Intimations, FIR (Exhibit P-5) was registered against the two appellants herein for the offence punishable under Section 304/34 of IPC on the ground that at Village Pond, on 20.4.2015, between 7-9 p.m., when cattle of Bhupendra Sahu did not return home, he along with Nomendra Sahu, Kuleshwar Gond and Tomesh Halba went to search for his cattle at village fields and there they came in contact with live/ naked electricity wire laid by the appellants at their field to protect the crops from animals, and died on the spot due to electrocution.

(iii) During the investigation, it was found that appellants were farming on the land bearing Khasra No.136/2, area 0.79 hectare and Khasra No.135, 136, area 0.44, 0.56 hectare situated at Patwari Halka No.36 and irrigating their field by taking temporary electricity connection and, on the date and time of offence, they unauthorisedly used 6mm naked centering wire all around their fields and flown electric current through the said naked electric wire with which the four deceased persons herein came in contact and died due to electrocution. Spot Map of the place of incident was prepared vide Exhibit P-6 and Nazri Naksha prepared by Patwari is Exhibit P-6. Appellants were arrested vide Exhibits P-8 & P-9. Memorandum Statement of A-1 Bhuneshwar Nishad was recorded vide Exhibit P-10 pursuant to which, electric boards, centering wire, electric wire, iron poles, wooden poles, etc., were recovered vide Exhibit P-11. Inquest proceeding was conducted vide Exhibits P-32 to P-35 and the dead-bodies of Bhupendra Sahu, Tomesh Halba, Nomendra Sahu and Kuleshwar Gond were subjected to post-mortem which was conducted by Dr. G.R. Rawate (PW-8) vide Exhibits P-23 to P-26 in which the cause of death of the four deceased persons has been shown to be, due to paralysis of medullary respiratory center and cardiac arrest and their death was stated to be accidental in nature.

(iv) Vide Exhibit P-20, Junior Engineer Kuleshwar Prasad Vaika gave his report that though temporary electricity connection was provided to the appellants for agriculture and irrigation purpose, but they unauthorisedly used centering wire and flown electric current through the same all around their field leading to the causalities and thereby the appellants flouted regulations 12 &