The distinction between murder and culpable homicide hinges on the accused's intent; insufficient evidence of intent led to reclassification from murder to culpable homicide.

JUDGMENT :

ILESH J. VORA, J.

1. This criminal appeal preferred by the sole appellant herein under Section 374(2) of the Cr.P.C. is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 31.03.2014 passed by the Sessions Court, Vadodara in Sessions Case No.86 of 2012 by which the appellant has been convicted under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to further undergo additional imprisonment for 6 months.

2. Case of the prosecution, in short is that, prior to the offence, the appellant-accused was stalking the aunt of the deceased and was following her. The parties are resident of Village:Dabhoi, Dist:Vadodara. The aunt of the deceased PW.8 Shahenaz Mansuri, on 18.01.2012, went to market for purchasing vegetables, but she could not purchase it because the appellant-accused was following her and due to his fear, she came at home without purchasing the vegetables. On arrival of her at home, she narrated the harassment meted out to her to her nephew–deceased Javed who was residing nearby her house at Dabhoi. The deceased after hearing his aunt, had gone to in search of the accused in the area nearby masjid of the village. The deceased met the accused and tried to convince him not to harass his aunt and the accused had been scolded by him. Due to said incident, the scuffle took place between the deceased and the accused and accused got furious and hit the deceased with knife on the left side of his pelvic region which resulted into rupture of main blood vessels. The deceased after the incident fell on the road. The persons who were gathered, tried to caught the accused and meanwhile, the aunt PW.8 Shahenazbanu, after receiving the message of the incident, immediately rushed to the scene of occurrence where the deceased was lying. The PW.8 upon asking the deceased about the incident, the deceased told her that, the accused-appellant hit him with the knife. The deceased was taken to Pramukh Swami Hospital at Dabhoi. Dr. Pritesh Parmar (PW.17) gave primary treatment to the deceased, but he could not survive and died at about 9:15 p.m. The PW.8-aunt Shahenaz Mansuri lodged an FIR with Dabhoi Police Station on the same day. The accused then caught by the witness Shakeel Mansuri (PW.12) and Mohsin Mansuri (PW.13). The investigating officer (PW.23) was entrusted to investigate the case. During the course of investigation, he arrested the accused and sent him for medical examination as he sustained a minor injury over his body. The I.O. then recorded the statements of eye witnesses, drew the Panchnama of place of incident, sent dead body for post-mortem and collected the report thereof and recovered and seized the knife allegedly used by the accused in commission of the offence and lastly, sent all the muddamal articles to FSL analysis. The I.O. thereafter, found sufficient material for the charge of murder and accordingly, the accused was chargesheeted. The case was committed to the court of sessions.

3. After due framing of charge and upon accused not pleading guilty, the trial commenced before the Sessions Judge, Vadodara. In order to prove the charge, the prosecution examined 22 witnesses and exhibited 26 documents:

Oral evidence