SNE NETWORK.NEW DELHI.
The Supreme Court has given a big relief to three people in a 40-year-old case of murder after a fight between children over mango. The apex court has reduced the life sentence in this case to seven years of jail. The apex court has said that this murder was not done deliberately in a planned manner. Rather it was unintentional murder. Life imprisonment has been sentenced for a minor crime like unintentional murder. Let us tell you that the apex court had pronounced this verdict on July 24, but it has now been uploaded on the Supreme Court website.
Now in the case, the bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Hasanuddin Amanullah said that considering the totality of the facts and circumstances of the case, the nature of the injuries on the deceased and the nature of the weapon used, it is clear that this is actually a case of unintentional murder and it is not murder. The bench also said that the statements of all the eyewitnesses in the case have brought it on record that this is not a case of premeditated murder. In such a situation, we replace Section 302 (murder) of the IPC with Section 304 Part-1 of the IPC. In such a situation, the sentence of life imprisonment of all the appellants is replaced with rigorous imprisonment for seven years. Also, each appellant will have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000, which they have to deposit within a period of eight weeks from today.
It is worth noting that in 1984, a case was registered against three people for killing a fellow villager by hitting him on the head with a stick after a minor fight between children over mangoes in a village in Uttar Pradesh. In this case, the trial court of Gonda district convicted them of murder in 1986 and sentenced them to life imprisonment. After this the matter reached the Allahabad High Court. Where in 2022 the High Court upheld the sentence given to them by the trial court of Gonda district of the state. However, while the appeal was pending before the High Court, two of the five convicts died. Due to which the proceedings against them were terminated. After the High Court, the petitioner moved the Supreme Court. Where now the Supreme Court has given him relief.