Rajasthan High Court: A Division Bench of Sandeep Mehta and Abhay Chaturvedi, JJ. partly allowed a criminal appeal wherein they reduced the sentences of the accused-applicant due to lack of evidences produced by the prosecution.
In the present case, the accused-applicant was charged under Sections 307 and 326 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 in an order passed by the learned trial court. The learned trial court passed a strict sentence under the aforementioned provisions. It was alleged that the accused-applicant had indulged in looting and scandalizing the informant’s shop. The informant had lodged a report of the incident to the police. Thereafter, accused-applicant, armed with an acid bottle, assaulted the informant and his son by throwing acid on them. The incident left both the informant and his son with severe burns on their body. On the basis of the report, an FIR was registered by the police station for the offences under Section 323 and 326-A IPC. During the proceedings in the trial court, the accused-applicant had provided a different set of facts. He presented that the accused applicant had visited the shop to purchase some groceries and upon not being able to pay the full amount the informant was furious. While passing by their shop, the accused-applicant was accosted and beaten up with an acid bottle. However, the trial court upon perusal of the evidences and medical report placed on record, framed charges against the accused-applicant for the above offences.
Anand Purohit, Senior Advocate, assisted by Kapil Purohit representing the accused-applicant, challenged the trial court order and stated that the facts presented by the prosecution were incorrect. The Senior Advocate, without challenging the fact that the accused-applicant had caused the injuries, submitted that due to the incident occurring at the spur of the moment and not being pre-mediated, the Court should reduce the sentences awarded by the trial court.
Public Prosecutor representing the Respondents, N.S. Bhati, claimed that the accused-applicant was merely a drug addict hence such an act was expected from him. Adding to that, he had troubled the respondents twice on that fateful day. He, therefore, stated that the impugned judgment is just and legal and does not deserve any sort of interference.
The High Court noted the fact that the accused-applicant did not challenge the fact that the acid-attack was perpetrated by him. However, the court also put forth that there was no police report by the injured party about the incident of looting thus there was a falsification of facts however it considered the medical report proving the injuries to be caused by acid. There was also a medical report proving the accused-applicant bearing a hole in his heart thereby mitigating the circumstances of causing an attack on others and thus, the Court felt the sentences passed by the trial court needs to be revisited. The High Court awarded a sentence of 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to the accused-applicant in light of the above facts.[Mohd. Rizwan v. State, D.B. Criminal Appeal No. 967 of 2017, decided on 29-07-2019]
