Murder attempt convict cannot be released: HC

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has set aside the judgement of a Trial Court, which had released a convict on probation.

The HC said that since the person was convicted for crime under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), probation cannot be granted.

The probation granted under Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act cannot be applied for persons convicted under Section 307 of IPC, the HC said.

“We have perused the entire judgment and the order of sentence. We are of the opinion that the trial court should not have exercised jurisdiction under section 4 of the Act as it clearly excludes giving benefit of the offence which are punishable with death or imprisonment for life,” the HC said.

The HC further noted that “Under Section 307 IPC, if the facts and circumstances are such that the court can award imprisonment for life, it can be awarded.

Therefore the Act cannot be applied in respect of offence under Section 307 IPC. Thus seen, the impugned order is not sustainable.”

Simple injuries to two Yashavanth, a 28-year-old from Honnali taluk, was accused of the offence and the trial was conducted by the II Additional District and Sessions Judge, Davangere.

The Trial Court found him guilty of the offence but directed that he be released on probation. The State challenged this judgement before the High Court in 2017.

The Division Bench of Justice Srinivas Harish Kumar and Justice G Basavaraja heard the appeal and disposed it recently. The HC set aside the probation granted to the convict.

However, it treated the appeal of the State to consider the crime committed. It found that Yashvanth had caused injuries to two persons and both were simple injuries.

“In our view considering the nature of the injury sustained, we do not think that the offence punishable under Section 307 IPC gets established. The wound certificate indicates simple injuries. At best the offence under Section 324 IPC (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) would get established. Therefore we record conviction for the offence under Section 324 IPC instead of offence punishable under Section 307 IPC,” the HC said.

The punishment for the offence under Section 324 was set at one month and fourteen days, which was the number of days the accused had spent in jail as an undertrial. (CrLA 983/2017)