The present criminal appeal case (STATE OF MP v. RAMJI LAL SHARMA) was filed against the High Court’s decision. Supreme Court restored the order of the Trial Court and held the all the accused liable for the murder under section 302 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
COMMON INTENTION (SECTION 34): Common Intention has been defined under section 34 of the Indian Penal Code which tells that any act of criminal nature done by several people with the common intention then each of the people will be liable for that particular act in the same manner as if it was done by him alone.
For the presence of the common intention there must be the presence of the criminal act which needs to be done by not only one person but more than one person. Participation of all the persons should also be there in furtherance of that common intention.
Here, in this case it was specified by the court that if all of the accused did not use the murder weapon or did not cause the injury but they were present there and were sharing the common intention to murder then they will be held liable for the murder.
Supreme Court observed that when there is a case of common intention and the common intention of all accused is proved that in such case two things will be immaterial and they are:
Whether any of the accused who shared the common intention used any weapon
Or
Any of the accused who shared the common intention caused any injury on deceased or not.
SUMMARY OF THE CASE
One morning the deceased brother named Devendra went to the house of the accused (Ramji) for getting the money which he was supposed to get in return of the grinding of the wheat flour. Devendra on the demand of the money was assaulted by the accused no.3 and the accused no. 4.
All the accused with the weapon went towards the deceased house and on seeing the deceased Ramji hit him with his weapon(axe) and the two other accused also fired the firearm at him. The whole incident was eye witnessed by the Laxminarayan.
Laxminarayan launched the FIR agaisnt all the accused. All the accused were tried by the learned Trial Court.
TRIAL COURTS DECISION
In the case of State of MP v. Ramji Lal Sharma all the accused were held guilty and were punished for the murder under section 302 of Indian Penal Code read with section 34 (common intention) and were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment.
The accused filed the appeal against the trail court.
APPEAL AGAINST THE TRIAL COURT
Trial Court allowed the three of the accused to file the appeal to the High Court.
High Court acquitted the accused because High Court observed that there was some sort of the difference which was occurring in the ocular and medical evidences.
The accused were given the benefit of the doubt by the High Court.
APPEAL BY THE STATE
State filed the appeal to the Supreme Court against the judgement of the High Court. The appeal by the state was allowed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court agreed with the conviction given by the trial court.
“The sentence imposed by the learned Trial Court is also restored. Now respondents herein – original accused to undergo the remaining sentence as per the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned Trial Court. Respondent No.1 and 2 to surrender before the concerned Jail authorities or Court within a period of four weeks from today. The present appeal is accordingly allowed”
Published By: Manan Khurana
Edited By: Subbuthai Padma
