SLP (Crl.) no. 8682 of 2014
Supreme Court of India
BENCH: Hon’ble A. Mishra J., Hon’ble V. Saran J., Hon’ble M.R. Shah J.
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 5 March 2020
RELEVANT SECTIONS:
- Section 364 of IPC (Kidnapping or abduction in order to murder)
- Section 302 of IPC (Punishment for murder)
BACK HISTORY
Manoj was working as a labour in the house of Shivlal. The wife of Manoj eloped with the younger brother of Shivlal. On February 2 of 2011, the three children of Shivlal, son Vijay aged about 8 years, son Ajay aged about 6 years and daughter Sakshi aged about 4 years were kidnapped by Manoj for the sake of revenge as his wife has eloped with the brother of Shivlal. The missing report of children was filed by their father Shivlal. During the search, Ashok Patel stated that he had seen the minor children along with the accused near the school. The accused was found, arrested and interrogated by the police. According to his statements, the dead bodies of three children were recovered from the field and sent for the postmortem examination.
The investigating officer filed the charge sheet against the accused of committing offences under sections 364 and 302 of IPC.
POSTMORTEM REPORT
The postmortem examination of three minors was conducted by Dr. A.M. Shrinivasa. According to the postmortem reports, the presence of incised wounds on the bodies was caused by a hard and sharp or blunt object. He opined the cause of death of all the three child victims was strangulation and the manner of death was homicidal.
JUDGEMENT
The court convicted the accused Manoj Suryavanshi for the offences punishable under sections 302 and 364 of IPC which included crime of kidnapping and murder of three child victims. This court commuted the death sentence imposed over the accused by the high court into the sentence of life imprisonment.