The conviction for murder is reducible to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Exception 4 of Section 300 IPC if the act was committed during a sudden quarrel, without premeditation, or cruelty. Additionally, conviction under the Atrocities Act requires strict proof of the victim's social status.

Judgment on Board

Per Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, J.

1. Present appeal has been filed by the appellant under Section 415 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 r/w 14A(1)(2) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (for short, ‘SCST Act’), against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 26.04.2017 passed by the learned Special Judge for SCST Act, Korba, District-Korba in Special Criminal Case-31 of 2020, whereby the appellant has been convicted and sentenced in the following manner with default stipulation, and to run the sentences concurrently:

2. Brief facts of the case are that complainant- Laxmi Prasad Chouhan gave merg intimation to the Police Ex.P11 that on 05.09.2020 at about 3 p when he was in his house along with his family members, they heard noise of a person and when they came out from their house, they saw that the appellant was assaulting PW1-Uma Yadav. All of sudden, he came towards them and assaulted his wife Gauribai on her abdomen by knife and she fell down. Blood was oozing and her intestines came out from her body. When he intervened the incident, appellant fled away from the place. They took the injured- Gauribai to the hospital, where she died. Based on the merg intimation, Dehati First Information Ex.P12 was recorded by the Police, and then Police started investigation. Inquest of the dead-body of the deceased Ex.P24 was prepared in presence of the witnesses and the dead-body was sent for its postmortem to the District Hospital, Korba, where PW6-Dr Ram Kumar Divya conducted postmortem on the dead-body of deceased and gave his report Ex.P9. While conducting postmortem, the doctor has noticed 1)an abrasion over left side chest, 2)stab injury over left hypochondrium 5cm away from epigastrium region reaching to cut the both lobes of liver, lower surfaces of body of stomach, length of stab wound is 12”, and death of the deceased is homicidal in nature. Injured PW1- Uma Yadav was also sent for her treatment to the District Hospital, Korba, where PW6-Dr Ram Kumar Divya medically examined her and gave his report Ex.P7. Injured Uma Yadav received 1)incised wound over right forearm, 2)incised would over right arm, 3)incised would over right shoulder joint, 4)incised would over left mandible region, 5)incised would over left pinna, lower part and the doctor opined that injuries caused by hard and sharp object and she was referred for expert opinion from surgical specialist. Injured was admitted at the district hospital, Korba from 05.09.2020 to 08.09.2020, her bed ticket has been obtained vide Ex.A1. The dying declaration of injured-Gauribai Ex.P1, spot map Ex.P2 was prepared by Patwari, Ex.P13 was prepared by the Police. From the floor, and door of house of injured Uma Yadav, pieces of blood soaked cotton, and plain piece of cotton have been seized from the spot vide seizure memo Ex.P14. Blood spots wiped out with piece of cotton, and plain piece of cotton have been seized from the house of deceased-Gauribai vide Ex.P15. Blood spots from the auto have been wiped out with respect to