Supreme Court: In a one of a kind case where the deceased and the accused had a suicide pact, in which the accused survived, the bench of T.S. Thakur and R. Banumathi, JJ held that the death of deceased was not premeditated and the act of the accused causing death of the deceased was in furtherance of the understanding between them to commit suicide and the consent of the deceased and the act of the accused falls under Exception 5 of Section 300 IPC.
Modifying the conviction of the accused under Section 302 IPC to Section 304 Part I IPC, the Court held that it was inclined to come to this conclusion owing to the formidable circumstances favouring the accused which showed that the accused came unarmed to the house of the deceased and picked up the sword from room itself. Also, the deceased had not raised any alarm for help and the accused was also having stab injuries on his person.
After careful consideration of the arguments advanced by Mohd. Adeel Siddiqui and S.S. Shamshery, the counsels appearing for the appellant and the respondent, respectively, the Court concluded that there was adequate evidence which showed the love affair between the accused and the deceased and that their relationship was not accepted by the villagers which lead to the suicide pact between the two in which the accused survived due to intervention. The Court, hence, modified the sentence and upon noting that the accused has been in custody for more than 10 years, ordered his release. Narendra v. State of Rajasthan, Criminal Appeal No. 1902 of 2014, decided on 02.09.2014
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