A mentally and physically challenged man has been sentenced to seven-year jail term by a New Delhi court for beating a person to death following a fight over a blanket.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajesh Kumar Goel awarded the jail term to a Delhi resident, who was suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia and whose legs were amputated, saying it could not be proved that at the time of the incident, he did not know that his act was either wrong or contrary to law.
"Accused though suffered from certain mental instability even before and after incident, but from that one cannot infer on a balance of preponderance of probabilities that accused at the time of the commission of the offence did not know nature of his act, that it was either wrong or contrary to law," the court said. "The plea of the accused does not come within exception contemplated under Section 84 (incapability of knowing nature of act, or that he is doing what is either wrong, or contrary to law) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," the court added and imposed a fine of Rs 2,000.
The court said it was proved that the victim Sanjay died after a "sudden" fight between him and the convict in January 2012. "Accused was driven to crime which was not premeditated and occasion had sprung up at the moment, gradually leading to the point when the accused lost his self-control and inflicted the injuries on deceased," the court said.
According to the prosecution, on January 1, 2012, a quarrel took place between the accused and the victim over a blanket outside a temple in Rohini in northwest Delhi, where both used to beg. It alleged that during the fight, the accused caught hold of Sanjay and hit his head against the pavement forcibly and continued doing it till the victim died.
A case was registered and the accused was booked for the offence of murder. The court, however, diluted the charge of murder and convicted him for the offence punishable under Section 304 Part I (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC saying it was "not premeditated".
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