STATE OF H.P. Vs. JAGDISH CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the State is directed against the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge, Kinnaur Sessions Division at Rampur Bushahr in Session Trial No. 10 of 1997 decided on 4.10.1999 whereby the accused was acquitted of having committed offence punishable under Section 302 IPC only on the ground that the accused was a schizophrenic and therefore, unable to comprehend what crime he had committed.

(2.) The facts of this case are not disputed. PW-1 Smt. Upani Devi is the widow of deceased Garibu Ram. According 2 to her at about 8.30 a.m on 3.9.1996 her husband was washing his face in the Veranda of the house. In the meantime, the accused came there and pushed her husband who fell down. Thereafter, the accused kicked her husband.He then beat her husband with a stone on the temporal region. She raised an alarm and a number of people came to the spot. Her husband died on the spot

(3.) The accused has not denied the allegation that he killed the deceased. The defence raised is that the accused is a person who had been undergoing treatment for severe mental disorder. He could not judge what was right or wrong and committed the murder in a fit of insanity. The learned trial Court accepted the plea of insanity set up by the defence and acquitted the accused. Hence, this appeal.