In Brief
A criminal appeal concerning culpable homicide arising from a village assault. The deceased, Prem Lal, was attacked by three men on 16 November 2000, suffering a head injury from a darat (agricultural tool). He lodged an FIR the same day and died nine days later from asphyxia. The trial court acquitted all accused; the High Court convicted them. The Supreme Court upheld the convictions but reduced sentences on mitigating grounds. It held that Section 32 of the Evidence Act does not require a dying declaration to be made in expectation of death, and that head injuries can medically cause asphyxia through hypoxic brain injury, establishing proximate causation."
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