Asvankhan vs. The Attorney General – sllr 2013 volume 2 page 033

In the case between Asvankhan (accused-appellant) and the Attorney General, the court addressed whether a conviction for culpable homicide not amounting to murder could be substituted where such a defense was not expressly raised by the accused but was evident from the prosecution’s own evidence. The court held that, although the accused did not present this alternative defense, the evidence—including medical testimony regarding the single stab wound and corroborating eyewitness accounts—demonstrated only the accused’s knowledge that his act was likely to cause death rather than a specific intention to kill. The principle reaffirmed is that a court is duty-bound to consider alternative charges justified by the evidence, even absent an express plea, as established in authorities such as Kin