The Madras High Court Bench here has set aside the life term awarded to a convict in a 2009 murder case.
The petitioner, Mayan, had moved the court challenging the conviction awarded against him by the Additional District and Sessions Judge.
According to the prosecution, Mayan was booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by the Sellur police after he stabbed Peer Mohammed to death on July 11, 2009 near Thathaneri. The incident, the outcome of an altercation, was witnessed by Mr Mohammed’s brother-in-law Mohammed Kasim, claimed the prosecution counsel.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge had found Mayan guilty of murder and convicted him to undergo a life term, he added.
In his appeal, Mayan denied the charge of murder. The petitioner’s counsel contended that the prosecution had fabricated the story, falsely implicating Mayan in the murder. He claimed that Mayan did not assault the victim with a deadly weapon but somebody else committed the assault.
Citing the post-mortem report, a division bench comprising Justices S. Rajeswaran and T. Mathivanan noted in their judgment that Mr Mohammed had died due to ‘shock and haemorrhage caused because of the stab’.
“Keeping in view the above fact, we find that the act of the accused may be taken out from the ambit of Section 302 I.P.C. The accused had no intention to cause death of the deceased. He had inflicted only one injury”, the judges observed in their order.
Therefore, the judges ruled that Mayan’s offence fell under Section 304 (part II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC. The division bench set aside the life term and directed the petitioner to undergo five years rigorous imprisonment.
