A conviction for murder under Section 302 IPC shall be altered to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 (Part-I) IPC when the fatal injury is inflicted during a sudden fight without premeditation, attracting the protection of Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC.

Judgment on Board

Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice

1. Heard Mr. Aditya Khare, learned counsel for the appellant as well as Mr. Soumya Rai, learned Deputy Government Advocate, appearing for the State/respondent.

2. Today, though the criminal appeal has been listed for hearing on I.A. No.01, application for suspension of sentence and grant of bail to the appellant, however, with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, the appeal is heard finally as the appellant is in jail since 23.05.2022.

3. Accordingly, I.A. No.01, application for suspension of sentence and grant of bail to the appellant, stands disposed of.

4. This criminal appeal filed by the appellant/accused under Section 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, ‘Cr.P.C.’) is directed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 31.10.2023 passed by the learned Second Additional Sessions Judge, Katghora, District Korba (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No.50/2022, by which the appellant has been convicted for the offence punishable under Sections 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, “IPC”) and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and fine of Rs.500/-, in default of payment of fine amount, additional rigorous imprisonment for one month.

5. The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 22.05.2022, an information was lodged at Police Station Gaurela by the informant regarding the death of deceased Itwar Singh Gond, who had sustained a head injury and succumbed to the same at District Hospital, Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi. On the basis of the said information, merg intimation (Ex. P/20) was registered and the police initiated inquest proceedings. During the course of investigation, the Investigating Officer prepared the inquest report/panchayatnama (Ex. P/22) in the presence of witnesses after summoning panch witnesses under Section 175 Cr.P.C. (Ex. P/21). The dead body of the deceased was sent for postmortem examination vide application (Ex. P/23), and the postmortem report (Ex. P/15 and short PM report Ex. P/27) revealed that the death was homicidal in nature caused by head injury.

6. Since the incident fell within the jurisdiction of the concerned police station, merg inquiry was converted into a regular criminal case, and FIR (Ex. P/24) was registered against the accused for offence punishable under Section 302 IPC. During investigation, the spot map (Ex. P/09) was prepared based on the statements of witnesses, and a detailed map was also obtained through the Patwari (Ex. P/30). From the place of occurrence, blood-stained soil and plain soil were seized vide seizure memo (Ex. P/02 & P/03) in presence of witnesses. The accused was taken into custody and his memorandum statement (Ex. P/01) was recorded under Section 27 of the Evidence Act, wherein he disclosed that he had committed the murder of the deceased and had concealed the weapon of offence and the clothes worn at the time of incident. Pursuant to the said memorandum, a wooden stick (weapon of offence) and a blue T-shirt were recovered at the instance of the accused vide seizure memo (Ex. P/02 & P/03). The seized articles were sent for medical examination and chemical analysis. The medical examination of the seized s