'Road rage results in disastrous consequences,' Supreme Court sentences man to 7-yr jail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said road rage results in disastrous consequences to both the perpetrator and the target, while sending a man to seven years in jail for causing the death of another person by giving him a fatal blow by an iron rod in such an incident.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran, however, modified the conviction of appellant Ravinder Kumar alias Raju from murder to that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, holding that there is no motive alleged on the accused nor can there be found any premeditation of him.

"The 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," the bench said.

The incident had happened after the victim, riding a motorcycle with his father as pillion rider, chased a three-wheeler after it collided with another scooterist.

"We have to clearly notice that the father of the deceased and the scooterist who had been hit, both spoke of the number of the offending vehicle having been taken by them. Despite this, they did not think it fit to approach the police and took law into their own hands, while pursuing the offending vehicle which was involved in a hit and run and confronting its occupants," the bench said.

In the course of such an altercation that the blow was inflicted on the head of the accused resulting in an injury which caused his death. It was a group of five persons who confronted the three occupants of the vehicle involved in the hit and run, the court noted.

"There cannot be any intention to cause death alleged but there is definitely an intention to cause bodily injury which resulted in the death. We say this, 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," the bench said.

Hence, the court said, the culpability under Section 299 of the IPC 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. 

Necessarily, the court said, the offence has to be found to be one under Section 304 of the IPC being culpable homicide not amounting to murder. However, under Part I of Section 304 of the IPC, 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.

"We are of the opinion that the sentence has to be of seven years rigorous imprisonment," the bench said, partly allowing the appeal and ordering the appellant to surrender within two months to serve the sentence.