Allahabad HC convicts 2 men in 1984 murder case, overturns acquittal after 42 years

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has convicted two persons in a 1984 murder case, overturning their acquittal after over four decades, officials said.

A division bench of Justices Rajneesh Kumar and Babita Rani on Monday allowed the State Government’s appeal and held the accused guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the IPC.

The court directed that the two surviving accused be taken into custody and produced before it on May 11 for a hearing on the quantum of sentence.

 There were four accused in the case, all of whom had been acquitted by a trial court in 1986 on the grounds of self-defence. However, two of them died during the pendency of the appeal, leaving the remaining two to face the High Court verdict.

The case pertains to an incident on June 15, 1984, in the Maakhi police station area of Unnao district.

According to the prosecution, the deceased, Jamuna Prasad, was constructing a drain on the roof of his house when the accused, Tulsi Ram, Laxmi Narayan, Jagat Pal and Harnam, objected to it, leading to an altercation.

The dispute escalated, and the accused allegedly attacked Jamuna Prasad and his brother Amrit Lal with sticks and spears. Jamuna Prasad succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital.

The trial court had acquitted the accused, observing that they had acted in self-defence as they too had sustained injuries, which the prosecution failed to explain.

Rejecting this reasoning, the High Court held that taking a person’s life over a minor dispute, such as water drainage, cannot be justified as self-defence and termed the trial court’s findings as “completely flawed”, according to the order.