The Bombay High Court has rejected a plea by a South Mumbai architect to quash an FIR registered against him for attacking policemen with a chopper.
On May 8, 2020, 27-year-old Karan Pradeep Nair was found walking unmasked in breach of Covid-19 restrictions.
Police Inspector Jitendra Kadam saw Nair proceeding towards Marine Drive Railway Station with a chopper. He tried to intercept Nair, but the latter allegedly ran away, threatening to attack those trying to catch him.
The policemen chased him and tried to pin him down when Nair allegedly tried to hit them with his chopper while shouting that he would kill them. Eventually, Nair was overpowered by the police and disarmed.
A case against Nair was registered, and a charge sheet filed. The Magistrate’s court committed the case for trial to the Sessions Court. Nair approached the High Court with a plea to quash the FIR.
Advocate Rizwan Merchant appeared for Nair and argued that Nair had no intention or knowledge of wrongdoing. He said due to Nair’s unsound mind, he could not know what he was doing. Nair thus cannot be made to undergo the rigours of the trial when the material on record squarely brings Nair’s acts within the exception of insanity envisaged by Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code.
Section 84 states that ‘Nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he is doing what is either wrong or contrary to law.
Merchant told the court that as soon as Nair was granted bail, he was sent for psychiatric evaluation and the diagnosis of the doctors was ‘Schizophrenia in partial remission’ and the treatment includes ‘psycho-pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy’. Merchant submitted that schizophrenia with which Nair has been suffering from is a form of insanity.
Government pleader S R Shinde opposed the plea and pointed out that there is no material to show that Nair was suffering from a mental illness. The fact that Nair was subsequently treated for mental illness is not of determinative significance, submitted Shinde.
The division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar said, “Every person is presumed to know the consequences of his act. Thus the burden of proof of insanity is on the accused. However, the standard of proof to dispel the burden is not proof beyond reasonable doubt but preponderance of probabilities.”
The bench added that the accused might be undergoing treatment now but, “it may not assume decisive significance as the determinative point of time for evaluating the state of mind of the accused is the time when the offence was committed.”
The court further said that appreciation of the material on record to evaluate the merits of the defence, which Merchant desired the Court to venture into, “is not permissible in exercise of extraordinary and inherent jurisdiction. The question as to whether the petitioner (Nair) was suffering from such mental ailment which prevented him from appreciating the nature and quality of the act is, thus, a matter for trial,” said the bench.
The bench also did not give much weightage to Merchant’s submission that Nair is incapable of defending himself on account of unsoundness of mind. The bench said that if the issue of applicability of the provisions contained in Chapter XXV of the Criminal Procedure Code is brought to the notice of the trial court Judge either by way of an application by Nair or otherwise, the Judge would deal with the same in accordance with law.
The procedures laid down in the code state that the judge “shall inquire into the fact of such unsoundness of mind, and shall cause such person to be examined by the civil surgeon of the district or such other medical officer as the State Government may direct, and thereupon shall examine such surgeon or other officer as a witness, and shall reduce the examination to writing.”
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/bombay-high-court-refuses-insanity-plea-architect-attacked-policemen-with-chopper-1864040-2021-10-12
