Under Section 482 Cr.PC, High Court cannot quash charges by appreciating evidence or deciding disputed issues like intention or causation; prima facie material from charge-sheet and medical opinion suffices for Section 302 IPC framing; trial must proceed.

JUDGMENT :

SHAHZAD AZEEM, J.

1. The petitioner has invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Cr.PC (corresponding to Section 528 of BNSS) seeking quashment of order dated 31 January 2024 passed by the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Reasi (‘the trial Court’), whereby formal charges under Sections 302/341 IPC came to be drawn up against the petitioner in FIR No. 255/2022 of Police Station, Reasi.

FACTUAL MATRIX

2. Precisely stated, the petitioner was sent up for trial allegedly for commission of offences under Sections 302/341 IPC accusing him of committing murder of deceased-Deepak Kumar on 6 October 2022 by inflicting the fatal blow with a wooden stick on his head, causing grievous head injury which led to his death while he was undergoing treatment. The deceased-Deepak Kumar was working in a private school namely, Gurukul School and was also supplying milk to the accused-Manga Ram (petitioner herein). On 6 October 2022 at about 7.30 p.m. when deceased after purchasing the household items from Reasi Bazar was returning home en-route alleged to have been wrongfully restraint by the petitioner and whereafter, inflicted blows with a wooden stick on his head and other parts of the body causing grievous injuries. The deceased in the injured condition was shifted to the hospital at Reasi by PW-2, Manu Devi (wife of the deceased) and PW-3, Sandeep Kumar (complainant and brother of the deceased). Since deceased stated to have sustained fatal blows, therefore, he was in need of advance treatment, accordingly, he was referred to GMC Jammu, however, despite he had undergone surgery, his condition did not improve, who finally bade goodbye to the life due to fatal injuries on 15 January 2023, while he was hospitalized in ICU at Government Medical College, Jammu.

3. Regarding the alleged occurrence, a FIR No. 255/2022 under Section 341/323 IPC initially, came to be registered on the basis of a written complaint lodged by the brother of the deceased, i.e. PW-3, Sandeep Kumar, however, as investigation progressed, the health condition of the deceased deteriorated. Accordingly, at one stage, the offences under Sections 325 & 307 were also added but finally, on completion of investigation and on the basis of material collected, the Investigating Officer has concluded the commission of offences under Sections 302/341 IPC and also, on presentation of challan, the trial Court vide order dated 31 January 2024 had formally drawn up the charges against the petitioner under Sections 302/341 IPC.

GROUNDS OF CHALLENGE AND SUBMISSIONS

4. The petitioner is seeking quashment of order dated 31 January 2024, whereby charges are drawn up against the petitioner, on the ground that the only allegation against the petitioner is that of wrongfully restraint and causing simple injury to the deceased but there is no allegation that such injury was caused with intention to kill the deceased, therefore, the charges under Section 302 IPC are wrongly framed which is per se illegal.

5. It is further stated that the alleged injury sustained by the deceased in the ordinary course was not sufficient to cause the death, more particularly, when the CT Scan report reveals that neither there was fracture nor there was bleeding. According to the petitioner, as per the narration given in the FIR, the deceased was restraint and injury was caused to him by inflicting two blows but neither any intention nor any motive was attributed