SC frees man who spent 7-yr in jail in murder case

The Supreme Court has acquitted a man, who was in jail for about seven years, of murder charges saying "vicarious liability" of common intention under the IPC would not be attracted to hold him liable for the offence as the other three co-accused have already been freed.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Ashok Bhushan allowed the appeal filed by the man against order of the Madras High Court convicting and sentencing him to life term for alleged offence of murder with common intention under the IPC.
However, the apex court held petitioner Thiayagu guilty for the offence under section 324 of the IPC for causing knife injury to the deceased.

The bench noted that since the man has been in custody for about seven years, it does not consider it necessary to impose any specific sentence on him.
"Once A-2, A-3 and A-4 (the three co-accused) stands acquitted, the vicarious liability under section 34 of the IPC would not be attracted so as to hold the accused-appellant liable for the offence under section 302 (murder) with the aid of section 34 of the Indian Penal Code," the bench said.
"The persons alleged to have participated in the crime with A-1 (Thiayagu) had been acquitted by the High Court. If that be so, the A-1 could not have been convicted of the offence of murder with the aid of section 34 of the Indian Penal Code," the apex court said.

The bench said that "notwithstanding the above, A-1 would still be liable for the offence of murder if the injury or injuries leading to death can be attributed to him. However in the present case, from the evidence of PW-1 (complainant), it transpires that A-1 was responsible for causing a knife injury on the leg of the deceased".