Introduction

A crime may be defined as an act of disobedience of law, however the liability of a person various from that of a civil law to a criminal law. Some of the grave criminal offences are robbery, murder etc. as it is a moral wrong as well as criminal offence. An act that is forbidden by law and that revolves around the moral sentiments of the society is considered as a crime.

All criminal law statutes contain two distinct parts. The first is the mens rea, which is the mental state that one must possess when committing a crime. Example, if one commits murder, it is necessary that the party committing the murder intended to engage in the act. This intention is the mens rea of the crime of murder.

Other part of a criminal statute is the actus reus. It refers to the action taken by the perpetrator. Example- In a drug dealing case, in order to charge the perpetrator with the crime of drug dealing, his action must be taken into account.

Culpable homicide and murder

Culpable homicide and murder are the gravest of offences against a human being. The term homicide  has  been  derived  from  the  Latin  word ‘homo’,  which  mean  a  man,  and ‘caedere’ which means to cut or kill. Homicide means the killing of a human being by a human being. It may be lawful or unlawful homicide.

The term ‘Murder’ is derived from German word ‘mortna’ which means secret killing. The offence of ‘Murder’ is an aggravated form of culpable homicide. Sec. 300 of the Indian Penal Code provides the meaning of offence of ‘murder’ and when it is culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The offence of Murder is an aggravated form of the culpable homicide. Sec. 300 of the Indian Penal Code clearly states the distinction when the act committed will fall under culpable homicide and when the act committed will amount to murder.

In the case of Subedar Tiwari v. State of Uttar Pradesh AIR 1989 SC– A woman was killed and the husband and his sister were persecuted. The facts are that in one morning when the milkman came found the door opened and he saw the woman was burnt in the kitchen. According to the evidence the husband neither entered the kitchen nor tried to be flame his wife. Deceased woman was lying in the same position though huge flames were seen. From the house some letters were found that had written to her father. Hence, it was held that it is a case of murder.

Assassination

It is almost same as murder and it results in killing of another human being but it differs in respect of motive. As discussed above, while committing murder the offender has a motive. When a human being is killed for reasons of revenge, greed, political or religious issues then such killing is called as assassination. It may also be conducted for money wherein one person pays another for killing a human being.

Hence, it can be concluded that a murder where the murderer has no motive or benefit to kill another human being and is doing on instructions or for money or for reasons mentioned above then it is called as assassination. In most of the cases, assassination is done of a popular person for political reasons. The killing of that person affects the mass and has a wide spread impact.

Man slaughter

Manslaughter is comparatively less serious offence than murder.  It can be divided into degrees, or categorized as voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

• Voluntary Manslaughter: Itis the killing of another person under extreme provocation or while under the heat of passion.  It does not need an intent to kill, but rather than the intent to do something else.
• Felony manslaughter: In this a person participates in a crime that isn’t listed in the felony murder statute (which usually includes the most dangerous kinds of felonies), but somehow someone dies during the crime.  Involuntary manslaughterusually involves acts of negligence or recklessness that lead to another person’s death.
• Vehicular manslaughter: It is causing a person’s death through driving while intoxicated – can be charged on its own or as part of involuntary manslaughter, depending on the laws of a particular state.

Crimes are wrongs whose sanction is punitive and in no way remissible by any private person but remissible by law alone, if remissible at all. Crime is an act deemed by law to be harmful to the society in general. Crime is a wrongful act or commission or omission of something that is contrary to law that tend to prejudice of the community for which punishment may be inflicted as the result of judicial proceedings taken in the name of the State.