Court caseSupreme Court of India, 2020

The appellants, with a co-accused, waylaid two men returning along a village road in Assam and assaulted them with sharp weapons; both victims died. The trial court convicted the appellants of murder under s. 302 read with s. 34 IPC and the Gauhati High Court affirmed. Before the Supreme Court they argued that no prior meeting of minds was proved, that no specific fatal injury was attributed to each of them and that mere presence could not attract s. 34.

The Court (Navin Sinha J) dismissed the appeal. Common intention does not require a long-standing conspiracy; it can be formed just before or even during the incident and is to be gathered from the conduct of the accused, the weapons carried and the manner of the assault. Section 34 does not require an overt act by each accused: where the appellants came armed, surrounded the victims and participated in the assault, and none of them tried to stop the others, each was liable for the deaths as if he had caused them alone. The convictions under s. 302/34 were upheld.