‘Offence without intent, knowledge not crime’
A person cannot be held guilty of an offence unless it is proved he had either the intention to commit it or the knowledge of committing it, a city court has said, while letting off a couple of the charges of assaulting a pregnant woman, thereby causing her miscarriage.
“There can be no offence without intention or knowledge. It must be proved on record that a particular offence has been committed either with the intention or with the knowledge,” additional sessions judge Anju Bajaj Chandna said, while acquitting the couple of the charge of causing miscarriage to a woman, an offence which entails life term on conviction.
While acquitting north Delhi resident Sita Ram and Rambha Devi of the charges of causing miscarriage to their neighbour Savitri’s daughter-in-law Lakshmi, the court said that the assailants were not in the knowledge that the victim was two-months pregnant.
The court held the couple guilty of only causing hurt to the woman and sentenced them to a period of 13 days which they had already undergone during the trial of the case.
“In this case, it is true that miscarriage had resulted to the victim due to the assault but it cannot be ignored that even the complainant (victim’s mother-in-law) was not knowing prior to the incident about the pregnancy of her daughter-in-law,” the judge said.
The case was lodged on complaint by Savitri that her neighbour, Sita Ram and Rambha Devi, had beaten Lakshmi, resulting in her miscarriage.
Infuriated by Lakshmi’s son fiddling with his scooter, Sita Ram and his wife thrashed her and kicked her after a heated exchange of words, resulting in her miscarriage.
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