The Chhattisgarh High Court while setting aside an impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence of the Trial Court for an offence punishable under Section 302 of I.P.C. has directed to release the appellant forthwith, accused of murdering his aunt on suspicion of witchcraft. Considering the nature of the injury and the intent behind the death of the deceased the conviction of the appellant for offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC was thus altered to Section 304 Part-II of IPC.

However, the bench directed the conviction and sentence under Section 4 of the Chhattisgarh Tonhi Pratadna Adhiniyam and the fine amount as imposed by the trial Court to be maintained.

A bench of Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice Radhakishan Agrawal weighed in the facts that the appellant has already undergone the sentence for more than 9 years and that both he and the deceased belonged to a backward area where people even today believe in superstitions, observed, “…it is a fact of common knowledge that the appellant and the deceased belonged to under-developed community and most of them are illiterate and they believe in superstitions. It is a common phenomena in the community dominated areas that they practice magic and many other type of witchcrafts to achieve their object whether good or bad. They hold many superstitions responsible for any misfortune and mis-happenings in their life and sometimes they became revengeful for no other reason but for their own doubts that someone is playing witchcrafts on them or something wrong had been happened in their family or life due to witchcrafts played by someone. Many a time, on the basis of their suspicion, they declare some woman as a witch and even their Panchayat passes weird/hippocratic orders against them”.

Moreover, considering the nature of the injury inflicted upon the deceased the bench further noted, “it is quite vivid that there was no premeditation on the part of the appellant to cause death of the deceased, but since the appellant was suspecting that his wife was suffering serious ailment on account of witchcraft played by deceased Dulai Sahu and he had developed a plea of anger/protest, by which he assaulted the deceased”.

Advocate Indira Tripathi appeared for the petitioner and Dy. Govt. Advocate Sudeep Verma appeared for the respondent.

In the pertinent matter, as per the facts a dispute arose between the appellant and the deceased (his aunt) when on an alleged suspicion that witchcraft was played by his aunt, Dulai Sahu and on his wife. Pursuant to which the appellant is said to have assaulted the deceased by a sharp edged weapon, by which she suffered grievous injuries and died resultantly.

Accordingly, the appellant was convicted for the offence under Section 4 of the Chhattisgarh Tonhi Pratadna Adhiniyam and under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code and was accordingly sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000/-, in default of payment of fine, additional rigorous imprisonment for 2 months.

Now the question to be considered by the Court was whether the case of the appellant would fall under Exception 4 to Section 300 of IPC and, as such, his conviction can be altered either to Part-I or Part-II of Section 304 of IPC.

Answering in affirmative, the bench allowed the petition while setting aside the order of conviction by the trial court.

Cause Title: Madan Lal Sahu v. State Of Chhattisgarh

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Justice Sanjay K. AgrawalJustice Radhakishan Agrawal

Agatha Shukla