Criminal Appeal: 525/00 & 527/00
High Court of Madhya Pradesh
Bench: Hon’ble Sanjay Yadav J., Hon’ble Vivek Agarwal J.
Date of judgment: 28th March 2019
Relevant Acts/Sections:
- Section 325 of IPC (Punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt)
- Section 302 of IPC (Punishment for murder)
- Section 304 of IPC (Punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt)
- Section 303 of IPC (Punishment for murder by life-convict)
- Section 323 of IPC (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt)
Backstory
The incident took place on 24.2.1998 at about 8 am when at village Ratikheda Balram was collecting Gitti in front of the house of Sultan Singh, and then Vijaybhan asked not to take such Gitti and Balram hit him with a handle of a spade. Balram left the place of the incident. Later on Balram along with Indrapal and Balakram armed with Farsa, Lakhan with Ballam, Mohan with the axe, Bharat with Barchhi and accused Tofan and Ramkumar armed with Lathi came and at that point of time, Balram hit complainant Sultan Singh with Farsa on his head and appellant Indrapal Singh hit deceased Brikbhan with Farsa on his head.
All the accused persons beat them with kicks and fists. Incident was witnessed by Chandrabhan Singh, Krishnabhan Singh, RamkumariBai Criminal, and Pankunwar Bai. Brikbhan died on 3.12.1998 i.e. after about 10 months of the incident, and therefore, it cannot be said that death was caused directly due to the assault made by the appellant Indrapalsingh.
Dr. S.N.Iyangar has mentioned in his examination-in-chief that patient was operated on the same day for removal of clotted blood, but thereafter admittedly patient was discharged from the hospital on 28.6.1998 and was again admitted on 25.8.1998. At the time of his discharge on 28.6.1998 patient was treated for TB, deficiency of B-complex, and protein. Thus, it is submitted that when the doctor has opined that patient was suffering from TB and as per the postmortem report that death was due to cardiorespiratory failure as a result of fibrocaseous disease of lungs, malnutrition, anemia, hypoproteinemia & cachexia, and there was no direct nexus between the injury and the cause of death.
Due to no opinion of the doctor that such injury was sufficient to cause death in the normal course, and therefore appellant Indrapal Singh was found guilty of an offence under Section 304 Part II of IPC.
Postmortem Findings
Dr.Natwar Singh (PW-11) who was posted as Assistant Surgeon at Civil Hospital, Ashoknagar, to point out that he had carried out the postmortem of deceased Brikbhan and has deposed that patient was in a coma for last 8-9 months because of head injury and was sustaining only on a liquid diet which was administered through rice tubes. He has admitted that the deceased was suffering from a disease of lungs which could be TB also and on dissection fibrocaseous material was found which was a sign of malnutrition, anemia, and protein deficiency and under such facts and circumstances, a person could have died of heart failure. But the findings also can’t neglect that the injured had suffered following injuries :
(1) Incised wound 9 c.m. X 1 c.m. X bone deep on the right side of the skull, 7 c.m. from the right ear.
(2) Incised wound 7 c.m. X 1 c.m. X bone deep on the midline of the skull, 8 c.m. away from injury No.1.
(3) Contusion 6 c.m. X 2 c.m. on the left anterior chest below the left nipple.
(4) Contusion 8 c.m. X 2 c.m. middle of right thigh.
(5) Contusion 4 c.m. X 2 c.m. on the left-back of the shoulder.”
Judgment
It was held that due to no opinion of the doctor that such injury was sufficient to cause death in the normal course, and therefore appellant Indrapal Singh was found guilty of an offence under Section 304 Part II of IPC and as he had already suffered imprisonment for over three years and nine months and appeal had come for hearing after more than 18 years of its filing.