Lucknow. The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, after 40 years in the case of culpable homicide, declared an accused as a juvenile (juvenile delinquent). At present the age of the accused is 56 years. The court has ordered the immediate release of the accused from jail, while giving him a sentence of about three years spent in jail. The High Court has given its decision on the plea of Juvenile after the order of the Supreme Court.
A bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Vivek Verma gave its verdict while hearing the appeal filed by the accused Sangram. On November 25, 1981, an Additional Sessions Court in Ambedkar Nagar (then Faizabad) sentenced Ram Kumar and Sangram to life imprisonment in a murder case involving the Ibrahimpur police station area. The incident happened on January 8, 1981. Against the decision of the Additional Sessions Court, both had filed an appeal in the High Court in 1981.
During the hearing, the High Court had asked the Juvenile Justice Board of Ambedkar Nagar on an application by Sangram to conduct an inquiry to determine his age. The Board submitted its report to the High Court on October 11, 2017 that the convict Sangram was about 15 years old at the time of the incident.
The High Court delivered its verdict on appeal on October 11, 2018 and upheld the conviction of both, but changed their sentence from life imprisonment under section 302 of IPC to 10 years under sub-section-I of section 304 of IPC. Sangram challenged the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court and said that at the time of the incident, he was a juvenile on whom the Board’s report was also there, but the High Court disposed of the appeal without hearing it.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to the High Court on August 27, 2021, saying that the plea of the juvenile would have to be heard at any stage of legal proceedings. After this, the High Court heard again and if proved to be a juvenile, the accused can be sentenced to a maximum of three years.
Leave a Reply