Man gets 10 years jail term for killing suspected thief

A man has been awarded a 10-year jail term for beating a suspected thief to death by a Delhi court which observed that he had no business to become a supreme authority and take law into his hands to commit a "fiendish act having shades of stone age".
The court, however, reduced the charge of murder under section 302 to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 (Part II) of IPC saying there does not seem to be any real premeditation and accused Kanshu Yadav, a tempo driver, had no intention to murder the victim but merely wanted to teach him a lesson.

"I cannot be oblivious of the fact that the convict had bludgeoned the victim and had given him a very bad hammering and thrashing with a broken fan belt. Even if the convict felt that victim was a thief, he had no business to become a supreme authority and to take law into his own hands and to hand out instant punishment to him.
"Such fiendish act, having shades of stone age, cannot be tolerated in the modern era having a fully developed justice delivery mechanism," Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain said.
The court, which awarded the maximum punishment for the offence, also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on Yadav.

The judge noted that there is no actual material on record to suggest that victim was a thief and said from facts of the case it appeared Yadav got enraged because of the theft of his articles from his tempo but had no intention to kill him.

"He (accused), under the fit of rage, gave a hammering to the victim. There does not seem to be any real premeditation. Action of accused is deplorable and condemnable though I strongly sense that a fleeting impulse overpowered his logical thinking... And in the heat of passion, he tied the victim and gave him whipping.

"Accused had no intention to murder the victim at all and he merely wanted to teach him a lesson. However, to his misfortune, the injuries proved to be grave and he succumbed to the same eventually. Keeping in mind the overall facts and circumstances of the case, I am inclined to hold that this makes it to be case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder," the judge said.
If an act is done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, it is an offence under Section 304(II) of the IPC.

According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of March 25-26, 2012 near Azadpur Mandi here, Yadav had beaten the victim up with a belt after tying him to his tempo, suspecting him to be stealing parts from his vehicle.