Dead man sentenced to 3-month rigorous imprisonment

August 28, 2016

Bengaluru, Aug 28: A division bench of the High Court has recalled an earlier order sentencing a dead man to undergo rigorous imprisonment of three months. The recall order came on August 16, 2016, six years after the court had passed the earlier judgement on July 28, 2010.vilang

The information that the accused was dead was not presented to the court when it passed the order in 2010. In its latest order, the court said: "It is a settled position in law that a judgement or an order passed against a dead person is a nullity in law."

Justice to the accused Swamygowda came after 18 years. The original case was against Swamygowda and Basavaraju in 1999. They were charged with attempt to murder, culpable homicide and voluntarily causing grievous hurt. In 2004, the trial court found them not guilty on the first two grounds but convicted them on the last count, sentencing Swamygowda to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 and Basavaraj to pay a fine of Rs 3,000.

The prosecution appealed to the HC in 2004 seeking enhancement of the sentence of the two. In 2010, the HC modified the sentence and ordered that both should undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three months and also pay a fine of Rs 50,000 each.

However, the HC was not informed that Swamygowda had died on March 22, 2008, when the appeal was still pending. The issue came to light that a dead man was sentenced to imprisonment after Swamygowda's wife filed an application earlier this year to recall the 2010 judgement against her husband.

The public prosecutor appearing for the State opposed the recall of the judgement sentencing Swamygowda, submitting that "the Court has no power to alter or review the judgement or final order disposing of a case, after it is signed, except to correct a clerical or arithmetical error."

In its latest judgement recalling the earlier order, the HC said: "the death was not brought to the notice of this Court at the time of disposal of the appeals". As the order against Swamygowda is nullified, the court said it was being recalled. "As this Court had disposed of the appeals without noticing the death of the respondent No.1-Swamygowda, the common judgement dated 28.07.2010 rendered in these appeals as against respondent No.1 is a nullity, and in view of Section 294 of Cr.PC, it requires to be recalled."

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June 2,2020

Pratapgarh, Jun 2: In a shocking incident, a young man was tied to a tree and set afire by the family of a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh late on Monday night.

The man, 25, was a resident of Bhujauni village under Fatanpur police station, and he died on the spot.

Enraged over the incident, his family members and local people turned violent and set two police vehicles on fire.

Additional forces were rushed in to control the situation that remains tense.

The body has been sent for post-mortem.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP), Pratapgarh, Abhishek Singh, "Some people barged into the house of Ambika Patel and dragged him away. They then tied Patel to a tree some distance away and set him on fire after sprinkling petrol on him. They fled immediately after." Agitated family members and villagers assembled at the site and set a 112 police response vehicle (PRV) and another police jeep on fire. They were demanding immediate arrest and action against the accused.

The official said that Patel's relatives claimed that he was having an affair with a woman from his village and this had resulted in many face-offs between the families.

Patel had reportedly shared a video clip of the woman on social media a few months ago further increasing tension between the families.

The woman's family members had registered a police complaint against Patel in this connection at the Fatanpur police station that led to his arrest. He was released from jail recently, police added.

The woman had been recently selected as a police constable and was posted to Kanpur.

The SP said that an FIR had been registered on the complaint of the victim's family and efforts were on to arrest the accused.

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June 25,2020

Jun 25: A 16-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide at her house in east Delhi and her family members secretly buried her body, which was later exhumed for post-mortem, police said on Wednesday.

The girl, whose family hails from Jharkhand, allegedly hanged herself in a room in her house on Monday, they said.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot, police said.

Her body was exhumed on Tuesday as per the directions of the Sub Divisional Magistrate of the area. The process was carried out as her family members secretly buried her without informing the police.

The post-mortem will be conducted after Covid-19 tests, police said.

The incident took place on Monday. The reason behind her taking the extreme step is yet to be ascertained, they said.

Police said the girl lived with her mother and two siblings. The family hails from Jharkhand and are financially extremely weak. Her father died two years ago, they said.

After the father’s death, the girl's mother along with her siblings took her body to a burial ground and buried her, police said.

The police said the matter came to their notice after a neighbour alerted them about it. Following the information the body was exhumed, they said.

On questioning the girl's mother, she told police that she didn't know that one has to inform police in a suicide case, a senior police officer said.

Inquest proceedings have been initiated, police said.

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June 10,2020

Jun 10: In a suspected case of honor killing in Telangana, a 20-year old woman was allegedly smothered to death by her parents for being in love with a man from another caste, becoming pregnant and refusing to undergo an abortion, police said on Tuesday.

The parents killed their daughter using a pillow while she was asleep in the early hours of June 7 in their house in Kalukuntla in Jogulamba-Gadwal district and sought to project it as natural death, claiming she died of a heart attack.

However, following specific information and suspicion raised by the village secretary over the death of the woman, a college student, a probe was launched and the couple arrested on charges of murder under Indian Penal Code section 302 after post-mortem, police said.

The parents decided to kill the woman, the youngest of their three daughters, a day after she was found pregnant and refused to undergo an abortion, police said.

The woman had fallen in love with the man while pursuing her degree course in Kurnool district in neighboring Andhra Pradesh and informed her parents about it after she was found pregnant during an examination by a doctor. Her parents feared that their daughter may elope with her lover and brought pressure on her to go for abortion.

Though initially, she agreed, later she declined, following which they killed her and told everyone that their daughter died of heart attack, the police official said. When a police team went to their house and insisted on a post-mortem after noticing some marks on her body indicating a struggle, the parents tried to stop it, saying there was no need.

Later, police shifted the body to a hospital where a post-mortem revealed the woman was "throttled to death". Her parents during interrogation confessed to killing their daughter, the official said, adding they were arrested.

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