Ravinder Kumar @ Raju vs State Of Punjab 2025 INSC 396 - Road Rage
Indian Penal Code 1860 - Section 299-304 -While partly allowing criminal appeal in a road rage case, SC observed: Since the assailants, including the deceased, were not armed and in the midst of a wordy altercation, the accused took out an iron rod and hit one of the assailants on the head; a vital part of the body. Hence, culpability under Section 299 of the I.P.C. though attracted, it does not result in a finding under Section 300 since it falls under Exception 1. The one blow inflicted on the head of the deceased resulted in his death, that too after five days, which overt act was without any pre-meditation and was occasioned in an altercation where the group comprising the deceased were the aggressors and the offender- appellant herein could be said to have acted under sudden provocation, thus being deprived of the power of self-control. Necessarily, the offence has to be found to be one under Section 304 of the I.P.C. being culpable homicide not amounting to murder. However, under Part I of Section 304 of the I.P.C., since the bodily injury deliberately inflicted was likely to cause death and in such circumstance, the conviction has to be modified to be under Section 304 Part I.
