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Doctor’s certificate not enough for insanity plea - Mumbai HC

A doctor's certificate is not enough to declare that an accused was insane at the time of committing a crime, the Bombay high court has said.

A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode made the observation on Wednesday while hearing a petition seeking confirmation of the death penalty for Santosh Mane, a state transport bus driver, who mowed down nine persons in Pune. Mane's lawyers have claimed that he was of "unsound mind" at the time of the incident and was undergoing psychiatric treatment.

"Merely because a doctor gives a certificate, it is not sufficient to declare that an accused was not sane at the time of the incident," observed the judges. "There has to be a finding by the trial court after evidence is led that the accused was of unsound mind." The bench questioned the defence over raising the plea of insanity at a belated stage.

The defence had not raised the issue during the trial. It did so only after the HC remanded the case back to the sessions court after the verdict was pronounced for the first time.

Mane's lawyers claimed that he had been subjected to electro-convulsive therapy; the doctor's report said Mane claimed "he heard voices, thought the world was going to end, a war was going on where everyone would be killed and people were coming after him".

The court asked the lawyers if Mane had reported his problems to his employers. The defence advocate said that state bus authorities had not been informed.

Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde opposed the defence's plea and said Mane was sane and perfectly in his senses when he committed the crime. He pointed out that the trial court had ruled that his claims had no basis and he was not insane at the time of committing the crime. The high court will continue with the hearing on Thursday.

On January 25, 2012, Mane hijacked a state transport bus from Swargate depot in Pune and drove recklessly, mowing down everything in the vehicle's path. The rampage was brought to an end by the police, but not before Mane had killed nine people and injured 37 others.

Article referred: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Doctors-certificate-not-enough-for-insanity-plea/articleshow/37206509.cms?

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