Court convicts man for attempting culpable homicide, says he exceeded right of private defence
New Delhi: A court here has convicted an accused for attempting to commit culpable homicide by stabbing the victim, saying though the man had attacked the victim only after being slapped unjustifiably, he had exceeded his right of private defence. It observed that while the law allowed people to use the right of private defence instead of behaving like a coward when faced with imminent unlawful aggression, such right did not entitle a person to inflict more harm than required.
Additional Sessions Judge Sunil Gupta of the Saket court was hearing the case against Furkan against whom the Mehrauli police station had registered a case under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for causing injuries to the victim, Sagar Negi, with a foldable knife on November 20 last year.
In a recent order, the court said, "At first blush, it appears that the accused had committed the offence under IPC section 307 because he had caused injuries to the victim with a sharp weapon i.e., knife on vital parts of his body which indicates that he had the intention to kill him. A closer scrutiny of the material on record, however, shows a somewhat different picture."
Noting the CCTV footage, the court said there was no possibility of Furkan having abused Negi to the extent that he rushed from the second floor of the building and started slapping and beating the accused with a belt.
"In the footage, he (Negi) can be seen rushing towards the accused immediately after coming out of the house (after witnessing an altercation between Furkan and a security guard) and within a matter of seconds, he can be seen slapping him and attacking him with a belt.
"In these circumstances, it is clear that the victim was an aggressor, meaning thereby he was the one who had started hitting the accused without there being any justification for that because the altercation was going on between the accused and Prosecution Witness 4 (security guard) only. Also, no one had used violence till the time of his (Negi's) arrival at the spot," the court said.
It said that according to law, a person was well within his right to defend body or property, and in doing so one could legally resist the force being applied by another person.
"In such an eventuality, he is not expected to retreat because the law does not require its citizens to behave like a coward when confronted with an imminent unlawful aggression," the court said.
It said the right of private defence, however, did not entitle a person to inflict more harm than necessary for his defence, and in case the right was exceeded, the person was liable to be punished after considering that the individual was acting in self-defence.
"It is clear in this case that the accused had hit and attacked the injured or victim only after being slapped without any justification at all," the court said, adding, "The means used by the accused to save himself from the victim was much more than required in the given circumstances, meaning thereby he has clearly exceeded his right of private defence."
It then noted that Negi suffered from grievous injuries.
"This court is of the view that the accused cannot be allowed to go scot-free, he is liable to be convicted for the offence under section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the IPC" He is accordingly acquitted for the offence under section 307 of the IPC and is convicted for the offence under section 308 of the IPC," it said.
The matter has been posted for filing of the mandatory documents on Wednesday, following which the arguments on the quantum of sentence will be heard.