Delhi High Court downgrades conviction from culpable homicide to grievous hurt for want of 'knowledge'

The Delhi High Court has partly allowed a criminal appeal, altering a conviction under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) to one under Section 325 IPC (voluntarily causing grievous hurt). The case arose from a 2013 incident at a de-addiction centre in Delhi, where the appellant, who managed the centre, allegedly assaulted a patient with repeated kicks and blows to the abdomen after a dispute over unpaid fees. The patient died about eight days later; the post-mortem attributed death to septicemic shock from traumatic abdominal injuries, and the trial court had convicted the appellant under Section 304 Part II IPC, sentencing him to five years' rigorous imprisonment. The High Court held that Explanation 2 to Section 299 IPC preserves the causal link between an injury and the resulting death even where delayed or imperfect treatment contributed to the outcome.

But it found the prosecution had not proved the higher mental element Section 304 Part II requires: knowledge that the act was likely to cause death, as explained by the Supreme Court in Jayaraj v. State of Tamil Nadu. The trial court had inferred such knowledge only from the deceased's status as a de-addiction patient, which the High Court found insufficient absent proof the appellant knew of any specific vulnerability. The conviction was substituted with Section 325 IPC, and since the appellant had already served the equivalent sentence, he was ordered released forthwith.