Rajasthan High Court ruled that shooting a gun without aiming at someone does not count as an attempt to murder.
The Rajasthan High Court has decided that firing a gun to intimidate, without aiming at anyone, does not count as attempted murder. This ruling came during an appeal against the attempt-to-murder charges brought against the appellant. Justice Birendra Kumar, in a Single-Bench, pointed out that the FIR stated that unknown assailants demanded ransom from a businessman (the “target”) and then shot at his shop intending to harm him. However, the target was not there during the incident, and the bullets only broke the shop’s glass doors. The target’s employee reported the incident to the police.
The appellant claimed that the charges of attempted murder were inappropriate since no one was specifically targeted or hurt.
The Single Judge remarked that the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act did not apply in this case, as no ransom was demanded from anyone in the SC/ST community, nor was anyone from that community shot at. Thus, the charges were framed without proper judicial consideration. The Court concurred, stating that the charges under Section 307 IPC were not valid because the prosecution’s claim was that shots were fired at the shop, and the intended victim was not present. The firing was not directed at anyone else, including the informant. Therefore, charges under Section 307/149 IPC were also not applicable to the appellant.
The Court canceled the attempt-to-murder charges and directed the lower court to reassess and change the charges against the appellant. The Court stated that the judgment regarding the charges under Section 307/149 IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the appellant is now nullified. The case will proceed in the appropriate court under Section 386 along with 149 IPC.
Cause Title: Jakir Kha @ Jakir Hussein v. State of Rajasthan & Anr. [Neutral Citation No. 2024:RJ-JD:42067]
