NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday granted bail to a 90-year-old man serving a jail term for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, considering his health condition owing to age.
The apex court also noted that the man has already undergone three years of the sentence.
"As regards the applicant-appellant number one (Achchey Lal), it is noticed that he is over 90 years and already undergone 3 (three) years of sentence period," a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and A S Oka said.
"Considering his health condition owing to age coupled with the fact that he was on bail during the pendency of appeal before the high court without any adverse remark or report against him including his satisfactory conduct while in jail, in the interest of justice, it is ordered that, during the pendency of the appeal, applicant-appellant number one be released on bail to the satisfaction of the trial court...," the bench said.
The top court is hearing the appeal filed by the man against the April 2020 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which had converted the conviction of two accused, including Lal, from the alleged offence of murder under the Indian Penal Code to that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The high court had reduced their sentence from life imprisonment to 12 years. Meanwhile, the apex court dismissed the bail application filed by the another appellant who has also challenged the high court verdict convicting him in the case.
The case relates to the killing of two people in March 1996 in Uttar Pradesh following an altercation over grazing of cattle in the field. A trial court had convicted six people in the case. Later, the high court had acquitted four of them.