Accompanying key accused doesn't prove common motive: HC

Merely accompanying the main accused during an offence does not establish that the co-accused shares common criminal intention, the Delhi High Court has said.
"It is necessary that each co-perpetrator should have the necessary intent to participate or otherwise have requisite awareness or knowledge that the offence is likely in view of the common design.
"It also follows from the above that merely accompanying the principal accused does not establish common intention," a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Ved Prakash Vaish said.
The observations came in a verdict by which the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment of a man for killing and attempting to murder (under section 302 and section 307 of the IPC) two policemen respectively was set aside.

The court rather convicted Mohd Saleem under mild penal section 304A (rash and negligent driving) of the IPC and awarded two years jail term.
The case pertained to an incident in which Naresh, a head constable and one of his colleagues ASI Jagpal being hit during their attempt to catch a truck, carrying illegal slaughtered beef, on the intervening night of May 14-15, 2008 here.
While Naresh succumbed to injuries, the ASI got injured in the incident and later, Mohd Saleem, who was sitting in the truck alongside driver Mohd Azim, was convicted for various offences including that of murder and attempt to murder.

The driver, being a juvenile, was tried by the Juvenile Justice Board and co-accused Saleem was held guilty for sharing common intention with the driver by ramming the truck into the police van to evade the arrest and interception of the vehicle.