‘Accused Did Not Act in Cruel Manner’: Bombay HC Reduces Life Term of Man for Killing Wife over Meat

The Bombay High Court has recently reduced the life imprisonment of a man who was convicted for killing his wife for not cooking meat well.

The division bench comprising Justices Rohit Deo and Urmila Joshi-Phalke upheld the conviction of the man, and said his case would be covered under Section 304 Part-I (culpable homicide) instead of Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, and accordingly sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years.

The bench observed whether the case would fall under Section 302 or lesser and for finding out the nature of intention, one has to take into consideration the kind of weapon used.

The court found that the man had not prepared for the assault on his wife, and used a lethal weapon like a stick during the quarrel in which his wife died.

“In this view of the matter, we find that the appellant had knowledge that injuries could cause death of the deceased. There was an intention on the part of the accused to cause injuries. However, the accused had not taken undue advantage or has not acted in a cruel or unusual manner,” the court noted.

Therefore, the court held that the act of the man would cover under exception 4 of Section 300 of IPC and, therefore, his case would fall under Section 304 Part-I of IPC.

The court was dealing with the appeal moved by the man against his conviction for the offence of murder.

In 2015, the man, who was an alcoholic, had assaulted his wife for not cooking meat properly which was witnessed by the neighbours. The wife was later found lying unconscious in her house, and was declared dead by the doctors the next morning.

The prosecution had been successful in proving its case beyond reasonable doubt despite four of the prosecution witnesses having been turned hostile, including the daughter of the couple.

Consequently, the man was held guilty for murdering his wife and the sessions court had sentenced him to life imprisonment.

In the appeal, the counsel for the man alleged that the deceased wife was suffering from “Epilepsy” and had a stroke on the day of incident and fallen on the ground and sustained injuries, which caused her death.

However, the Additional Public Prosecutor for the State submitted that the wife was assaulted with a stick repeatedly by the man which had caused her internal injuries, resulting into her death.

The court found that there was nothing on record to show that the deceased was getting treatment for Epilepsy and the evidence of the medical officer and the inquest report had revealed that the deceased had sustained injuries due to assault on her by stick.

Therefore, the court held that the woman died homicidal death. However, it observed that her death took place as a result of a sudden fight.

“Admittedly, there was a quarrel between the accused and the deceased on account of meat which was not properly cooked and the accused lost his self-control and assaulted the deceased,” it noted.

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