Recently, the division bench of Telangana High Court comprising, Bench of Justice K. Lakshman and Justice K Srujana has held that causing someone's death by striking them with a lathi or stick does not automatically indicate an intention to cause death, and therefore, it may be categorized as culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The Court in this matter has overturned the conviction of the accused under section 302 IPC (murder) to 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

"The accused bet (sic) the deceased with sticks which are normally used in the villages and they cannot be termed as deadly weapon. Except for payment of amount which was due by the Vittal to Srisailam, there are no other serious disputes between the accused and the deceased which leads to murder him. Therefore, it cannot be said that it is a planned murder and they attacked the deceased with an intention to cause death."

The complainant asserted that the accused had physically attacked both him and the deceased during a dispute concerning the distribution of agricultural earnings. This confrontation escalated into a violent assault, resulting in the deceased sustaining fatal head injuries and passing away at the location of the incident.

The Bench also observe that, all the accused were related to the deceased and that it was a trivial dispute.

After investigation, it was established that the death was indeed a result of homicide. However, it was noted that the accused had employed sticks as weapons, which are not inherently lethal. Additionally, there was no indication of premeditation in the attack, and no evidence supported the notion that the accused intended to cause death. Consequently, the High Court concluded that the offense committed by the appellants fell under Section 304 Part II of the relevant legal statute.

"Therefore, it cannot be said that they intended to cause injury which is sufficient to cause death. At the most, it can be said that by inflicting such injuries, they had knowledge that he was likely to cause the death in which case the offence committed by him would be culpable homicide not amounting to murder. "

Therefore, the bench partially granted the appeal. Taking into account the time that had passed since the filing of the appeal, the court also reduced the sentence to the duration of imprisonment the appellants had already served