On the distinction between Section 304 and Section 304-A, the HC drew a clear line between. (File Photo) Holding that trial for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Indian Penal Code Section 304 requires “mens rea” — either “knowledge” or “intention” to cause death, the Gujarat High Court partly discharged four government engineers charged in connection with the 2007 collapse of a staircase at a Government Girls’ Hostel in Vyara that killed eleven students. Justice H D Suthar, while deciding four connected revision applications, pronounced a common judgment on May 5 and held that even if the prosecution’s case was accepted in its entirety, the facts could only sustain a charge of causing death by negligence under Section 304-A of the IPC and not for culpable homicide under Section 304, which requires either intention or knowledge that death was likely to result.…