The Madhya Pradesh High Court, held man under section 304 of IPC who ablaze women on her refusal to serve him food, this was seen in the case of PRAKASH KUMAR MEWARI VERSUS THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH [CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.831 of 1996], presided over by Justices Sujoy Paul and Prakash Chandra Gupta.
FACTS OF THE CASE
The Appellant who was living together with the deceased asked her to serve him food, the deceased refused this demand and asked him to serve food himself, The Appellant got annoyed by this and in order to kill her, he poured kerosine oil onto her and set her ablaze.
The deceased made an effort to save herself by leaving the place but the appellant caught her and held her back, during this process the appellant himself sustained burn injuries. The medical examiner who recorded her dying statement submitted that she was in a mentally fit state.
The counsel for the appellant submitted that the conviction of the appellant is solely based on dying declaration and that there was no eye witnesses to the incident.
The counsel mentioned that the conviction is solely based on dying declaration deserves to be interfered with.
A Division Bench Judgment of Gauhati High Court reported in 1993 Cr.L.J. 3869 (Sri Kajal Sarkar and another Vs. State of Assam and others) was relied upon to bolster the submission that in absence of clear name of the accused in the dying declaration, the dying declaration cannot form basis for conviction.
JUDGEMENT OF THE CASE
The court held that concurred with the submission of the State regarding the authenticity of the dying declaration of the deceased. The Court noted that the deceased was declared fit by her doctor to give her statement to the Executive Magistrate.
While upholding the guilty verdict, the Court found it fit to convert the conviction of the Appellant under Section 302 to Section 304 IPC after observing that considering the factual matrix, it was clear that he had committed the act in sudden impulse. Accordingly, the conviction of the Appellant was modified.
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JUDGEMENT REVIEWED BY VYSHNAVI KRISHNAN.
