In Brief
The appellant was charged with murdering his wife along with three co-accused under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. The Trial Court convicted all four; the High Court acquitted the three co-accused but convicted the appellant under Section 302 IPC alone instead of the joint charge. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction. The Court held that post-mortem findings and medical evidence conclusively established death by throttling, not hanging, with characteristic injuries including neck bruising, crushed neck muscles, and crushed cartilages incompatible with the low ceiling room height. Although co-accused were acquitted, the appellant could be individually convicted under Section 302 IPC as the evidence established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.", "summary_100":"The appellant was convicted of murdering his wife. The Trial Court convicted him and three co-accused (his father, mother, and brother) jointly under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC; the High Court acquitted the three co-accused but convicted the appellant alone under Section 302 IPC. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction, holding that although the acquittal of co-accused meant they did not act jointly with the appellant, this did not preclude the appellant's individual conviction under Section 302 IPC based on medical and circumstantial evidence. Post-mortem findings—bruising and ecchymosis on the neck, crushed neck muscles and cartilages—conclusively established death by throttling, not hanging, despite lay witnesses noting other injuries. The medical evidence properly prevailed over the inquest report.", <parameter name="cited_cases">[ { "raw_citation":"Krishna Govind Patil v. State of Maharashtra", "case_name":"Krishna Govind Patil v. State of Maharashtra", "cited_year":"<UNKNOWN>", "paragraph":"35", "treatment":"relied", "treatment_by":"this_court", "treatment_quote":"The effect of the acquittal of Accused 1, 3 and 4 is that they did not conjointly act with Accused 2 in committing the murder. If they did not act conjointly with Accused 2, Accused 2 could not have acted conjointly with them... We, therefore, hold that the judgment of the High Court cannot stand." }, { "raw_citation":"Sawal Das v. State of Bihar", "case_name":"Sawal Das v. State of Bihar", "cited_year":"<UNKNOWN>", "paragraph":"6, 36", "treatment":"relied", "treatment_by":"this_court", "treatment_quote":"although we may hold, as we do, that this must be a case of murder, it is not possible for us to find conclusively that it was a case of throttling and of nothing else or that the person who could have throttled or done some other act which actually killed the deceased was the appellant and not his father or stepmother." }, { "raw_citation":"Sukhram s/o Ramratan v. State of Madhya Pradesh", "case_name":"Sukhram s/o Ramratan v. State of Madhya Pradesh", "cited_year":"<UNKNOWN>", "paragraph":"6, 37", "treatment":"referred", "treatment_by":"this_court" } ]
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