Death over meat: Life term of victim's transgender partner

A transgender, serving life term for stabbing to death her live-in-partner in 2008 during a drunken quarrel over cooking meat, was today allowed to walk free by the Delhi High Court which set aside the lower court verdict and held him guilty for culpable homicide, instead of murder.
Maya, who has been in jail since February 25, 2008, was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment for the offence of murder by a trial court.
A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta, partially allowing the appeal of Maya, held that she lacked the intention to kill and absolved her of murder charge.

"We dispose of the appeal convicting Maya for the offence punishable under Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) IPC and as regards the sentence, we direct that the period already under gone by Maya would be the sentence to be suffered by Maya," it said.
Maya was residing with victim Ramu, a cycle rickshaw driver, as his live-in-partner at Nangloi and on February 22, 2008, when both were drunk, a verbal duel ensued between them after she refused to cook meat on the ground that it was Friday.
The spat turned ugly and an enraged Maya took a kitchen knife and stabbed her partner who was later declared dead in a hospital here, the police said.

The trial court had rejected the plea of Maya that the victim had stabbed himself after she refused to cook the meat.

"Well, the case is as simple as that. Maya having admitted her presence in the room when Ramu was stabbed and the explanation that Ramu stabbed himself being not acceptable, that Maya was the person who caused the injury has to be held to be proved," the high court said.
Absolving Maya of murder charge, it said, "Maya inflicted one stab wound on Ramu under influence of alcohol which was preceded with a quarrel would show that Maya acted upon a sudden quarrel at the spur of the moment. Maya picked up a handy knife...

"The offence committed by Maya is therefore not murder. The offence committed is culpable homicide not amounting to murder punishable ...For the reason there is no evidence that Maya had any motive to kill Ramu.