Death sentence to 3 in Assam for gruesome murder

Before the police could track down the culprits on the basis of mobile phone locations, the three had already killed Arup Dutta by beheading him. 

Written by Samudra Gupta Kashyap | Guwahati | Published on:April 22, 2015 7:38 pm -

The Morigaon districts and sessions courts on Wednesday awarded death sentence to three persons after holding them guilty in the abduction and gruesome murder of a 21-year old youth of Jagiroad town about four years ago.

Delivering a 108-page judgment, district and sessions judge Ikramul Hussain described the case as “rarest of the rare”, compared it to the abduction and murder of a schoolboy in Tinsukia district committed way back in 1975, and pronounced death sentence for the three persons – Mohan Teron, Sanjay Chand and Bhim Das – convicted under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC in the case.

The trio had abducted Arup Dutta (21), son of Apu Dutta, a businessman of Jagiroad town in Morigaon district, about 45 kms east of Guwahati, on July 17, 2011, kept him confined in an undisclosed place, and then demanded a sum of Rs 50 lakh from his father for release of his son. The trio used a mobile phone to make the ransom demand in the name of an armed underground group.

The boy’s father however lodged an FIR with the police, but even before the police could track down the culprits on the basis of mobile phone locations, the three had already killed Arup Dutta by beheading him with a sharp dao (machete) in a densely forested hill in the adjoining Karbi Anglong district and concealed the body. The police, after arrest of the three culprits one after the other, later recovered the highly decomposed beheaded body of Arup Dutta from the Amguri hills in Karbi Anglong, which was identified on the basis of DNA tests. The trio also confessed to have killed Arup on August 28, 2011, with the judgment noting that they continued to demand money for the release of Arup even after he was killed.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/death-sentence-to-3-in-assam-for-gruesome-murder/ [last accessed 28.05.2015]

Assam - Reprieve for death row convict- President commutes Jorhat jail prisoner's sentence to life

Saturday , March 28 , 2015 

Jorhat, March 27: The commutation of the death sentence of Bahadur Dewan alias Tote Dewan - a death row convict lodged at the Central Jail Jorhat - to life sentence by President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday has ended the uncertainty in the prisoner's life.

The prisoner had filed a mercy petition before the President almost a year ago. Earlier, a similar mercy petition had remained pending with the Assam governor for eight years, with the then governor J.B. Patnaik rejecting the plea on December 23, 2013. Dewan, 66, had sent his mercy petition to Rashtrapati Bhavan through the jail authorities, who forwarded it to the state home department on February 10, 2014.

Dewan had requested jail officials to assist him in filing the mercy petition to the President, as he has no family and no one has come to the jail to meet him till date, prison sources said. Dewan, who hails from Seshapukhuri Nepali Basti under Morhanhat police station in Sivasagar district, had hacked to death his wife Gouri, 35, sons Rajib, 10, and eight-month-old Kajib, and neighbour Budhimaya Dewan, 60, on September 30, 2002.

He reportedly had a quarrel with his wife the night before and after waking up early next morning, he picked up a dao (machete) and hacked Gouri and their two sons to death. He then knocked on the door of his neighbour Budhimaya and when she opened it, killed her as well. He has been lodged in Central Jail Jorhat since he was shifted from Sivasagar District Jail on April 12, 2004. The death sentence was awarded to him by the Sivasagar district and sessions court on December 26, 2003 followed by confirmation of the sentence by Gauhati High Court on April 28, 2005, and then by the Supreme Court on August 8, 2005.

Central Jail Jorhat, jailor Sanjib Kumar Chetia told The Telegraph that no official communication has been received regarding commutation of the death sentence till late this afternoon. Chetia, however, said based on media reports, the authorities had informed Dewan about the development. "Some prison inmates read about it (commutation) in the newspapers and could have told Dewan, so we thought we should inform him before he comes to know about the matter from inmates," Chetia said. He added that Dewan was told that the official letter in this regard was yet to arrive. The jailor said Dewan, who mostly keeps to himself and hardly speaks with other prisoners, smiled on hearing that he has been spared the gallows.

Chetia said Dewan thanked the jail officials, who had drafted the mercy plea and asked him whether there was any legal option available to him to petition the government to set him free. The jailor had assured him (Dewan) that he would discuss the matter with his senior officials and let him know. Chetia said the death row convict works in the jail garden voluntarily and is very possessive about the flowers. "Dewan's conduct is good and he seldom interacts with jail staff and other inmates," he added. Chetia said Dewan earns Rs 55 a day for working in the jail garden and uses the money to buy necessary items. In his plea to the President, Dewan has said he committed the murders because of an "unsound state of mind" and later surrendered himself to police. "I had no motive to commit such a crime but owing to my mental insanity I could not control my rage. Sir, I have already spent 11 years in jail and I repent my act and assure you I shall never indulge in any kind of confrontation in jail........." Dewan said in his plea.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150328/jsp/frontpage/story_11280.jsp#.VSZ5V_mUeQo [last accessed 09 April 2015]

After 22 rejections, President commutes death sentence of Assam man who killed four

TNN | Mar 28, 2015, 06.38AM IST NEW DELHI: The death sentence of a murder convict from Assam has been commuted to life imprisonment by President Pranab Mukherjee. This is one of the rare cases where Mukherjee has commuted the death sentence after becoming President in 2012. The relief to the condemned prisoner came after the President rejected mercy petitions of 22 death row convicts at a stretch. The President commuted the death sentence of Man Bahadur Dewan, alias Tote Dewan, from Assam's Dibrugarh district, to life imprisonment, sources said. 

Dewan was sentenced to death for killing his wife Gauri and two minor sons, Rajib and Kajib, in September 2002. He had also killed one of his neighbours, Bidhimaya, and surrendered before the police after the multiple murders. The death sentence of 1993 blast convict Yakub Menon, whose mercy petition was rejected by the President, has been stayed by the Supreme Court. Nithari serial rape and murder convict Surender Koli's mercy petition, too, was rejected by Mukherjee. In Dewan's case, Mukherjee is believed to have relied upon the opinion of the home ministry which had advised him to take a lenient view of the case. The ministry is learnt to have advised Mukherjee that Dewan was from a poor background and murdered his wife, sons and a neighbour due to abject poverty and unemployment.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/After-22-rejections-President-commutes-death-sentence-of-Assam-man-who-killed-four/articleshow/46722185.cms [last accessed 09 April 2015]

Assam man on death row fasts to end capital punishment

Samudra Gupta Kashyap : Guwahati, Fri Aug 31 2012, 01:43 hrs Waiting for a hangman for over 17 years now since the Sessions Judge of Kamrup awarded him a death penalty — and one that was subsequently upheld by the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court — Mahendra Nath Das has launched a “Gandhian” fast-unto-death in the Jorhat Central Jail, demanding abolition of capital punishment. “Capital punishment, like so many other things, is a legacy left behind by the British who treated us like slaves. I have been waiting in the prison with a death penalty for 17 years now. At this moment I pray to you to not only do away with my death sentence but also release me from prison as I have already served imprisonment more than a life sentence,” Das, who was shifted to the Jorhat Medical College Hospital after he took ill on the third day of his fast-unto-death on Wednesday, said in a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of India. Das was sentenced to death by the Sessions Judge, Kamrup (Guwahati) on August 18, 1997 in connection with the murder of one Harakanta Das in Guwahati on April 24, 1996. The death sentence was confirmed by the HC on February 3, 1998. The SC upheld the death sentence on May 14, 1999. A mercy petition that Das had filed before the President in 1999, was rejected in 2011. Source: The Indian Express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/assam-man-on-death-row-fasts-to-end-capital-punishment/995713/ [accessed on 1st September 2012]

SC notices to Centre, State on death penalty

The Assam Tribune: Guwahati, Wednesday, February 08, 2012

NEW DELHI, Feb. 7 – The Supreme Court has issued notices to Assam Government and the Centre in response to a petition filed by Kusumbala Das, mother of Mahendra Nath Das, who is on death row.

His mother has through her counsel pleaded that his death penalty be commuted to life sentence. The case was raised as an urgent matter in the Court of Justice AK Patnaik and Justice S Kumar.

After hearing the petitioner, the Bench issued notices to Government of Assam and the Union Government.

Das is awaiting execution in Jorhat, after the President of India rejected his mercy petition. This would be the first execution in India since 2004.

Das was sentenced to death in August 1997 for a murder in Guwahati, Assam in 1996. His mercy petition was rejected by the President of India in May 2011, following the advice of theGovernment of India.

The judicial process was completed after the High Court confirmed the death sentence in February 1998 and the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in May 1999. A mercy petition was sent to the Government of India in 2000.

Amnesty International is concerned that the eleven-year delay in announcing the verdict of the mercy petition and the resultant prolonged stay ondeath row may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Death penalty: Supreme Court notice to govt on crucial special leave petition

Manoj Mitta, TNN Feb 8, 2012, 06.02AM IST

NEW DELHI: The death penalty has been challenged in all the three cases citing the same reason: the inordinate delay on the part of the President in rejecting the mercy petitions of the convicts concerned. But different benches of the Supreme Court are treating this vital issue in conflicting ways on the decisions made by the President last year on the home ministry's advice.

As for the special leave petition (SLP) filed by Mahendra Nath Das of Assam, the bench comprising Justice A K Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices on Tuesday to the Centre and state while declining to stay his execution. If his SLP is rejected in the final hearing fixed for Thursday, Das may become the first convict to be hanged in India since Dhananjay Chatterjee's execution in 2004.

The line of action adopted by the Pattanaik bench in Das's case is a far cry from the one adopted three months ago by the bench comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice S J Mukhopadhaya in high-profile and politically sensitive cases relating to the Rajiv Gandhi assassins and Devendar Pal Singh Bhullar. The Singhvi bench, having stayed the execution of capital punishment in both cases, is due to hold elaborate proceedings from February 22 on whether the President's rejection of the mercy petition could be overruled by the SC on the ground of "unexplained delay" lasting over a decade to take a final call.

Given the importance of the matter from the viewpoint of human rights, the Singhvi bench had appointed two senior constitutional experts, Ram Jethmalani and T R Andhyarujina, to assist it as amicus curiae.

Since his mercy petition had been stuck with the President for 12 years, the SC's registry should have logically placed Das's SLP before the Singhvi bench. At the final hearing due on Thursday, it remains to be seen whether the Pattnaik bench, redressing the anomaly that has arisen out of the registry's oversight, will refer Das's SLP to the Singhvi bench in the interest of consistency.

The SC's pronouncement on if delay in the disposal of mercy petition can have the effect of commuting death penalty to life sentence may affect pending mercy petitions, including Afzal Guru's.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-08/india/31036765_1_mercy-petition-final-hearing-bench
accessed on 10th February 2012

HC upholds death sentence for Mahendra

TNN | Jan 31, 2012, 07.39AM IST

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati high court on Monday upheld its previous order of a death sentence for murder convict Mahendra Das, after keeping the verdict reserved for a week, and dismissed his plea to convert the death sentence to life imprisonment.

However, Mahendra is going to move the Supreme Court once again in the case.

Last Monday, the high court concluded the hearing in the case and reserved the verdict. Mahendra in his writ petition prayed to the high court to convert his death sentence into lifetime imprisonment since he has already spent about 14 years in jail awaiting the disposal of his petition seeking presidential clemency.

On April 24, 1996, Mahendra Das beheaded Harakanta Das in Fancy Bazar area of the city and surrendered to the police with the victim's head. He was arrested and has been in jail since 1997. The sessions court later ordered his execution in 1998.

The Gauhati high court in 1998 and the Supreme Court in 1999 upheld capital punishment in the case. In 1999, Mahendra's family moved a mercy petition to the then President K R Narayanan. After almost 12 years, the plea was finally turned down in May 2011 by present President Pratibha Patil, setting the stage for Mahendra's hanging.

"The division bench of chief justice A K Goel and justice C R Sarma today dismissed the writ petition filed by Mahendra Das where he prayed to convert his death sentence into lifetime imprisonment on the grounds of delay in disposal of his mercy petition by the President. We argued that the delay does not entail quashing the sentence and converting it into life imprisonment," said Bhaskar Dev Konwar, the counsel of Amal Das, son of Harakanta Das.

The assistant solicitor general of India (Gauhati high court), Randeep Sarma, added, "The delay in disposal of the mercy petition by the President can't be considered a cause for commuting the judgment. It is the President's discretionary power. We have submitted all the documents relating to the case before the court in this time period."

Happy with the judgment of the high court, Amal Das said, "It is sad that Mahendra's aged mother has to witness her son's death, but we have gone through the same. I have seen my father's gruesome death at Mahendra's hands."

On September 8, 2011, a division bench of the high court had rejected a petition filed by the convict's mother, Kusumbala Das, for commuting her son's death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground that Mahendra's mother had no locus standi to file it on behalf of her son.

On the other hand, unhappy with the verdict, Arup Borbora, the counsel of Mahendra Das, said they would move the Supreme Court in the case.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/HC-upholds-death-sentence-for-Mahendra/articleshow/11694957.cms
accessed on 31st January 2012

They haven’t found a hangman yet, have they?

Vijay (Hiremath) calls me up and says, “Did you read that Mahendra Das and Prof. Bhullar’s mercy petitions have been rejected by the President’s office?” I was on one of my fieldwork trips and was shocked to hear this news! He put me in touch with Yug Chaudhry who wanted to work on this case. We contacted the prison and then the relatives of Mahendra Das. Yug worked on the draft and contacted several others. He asked me a day before we left for Guahati, “Reena will you come also for this hearing?” I thought I must go because I knew the family by then and I had interviewed Mahendra Das just a few weeks before his petition was rejected by our the $President. We reached Guahati High Court next day i.e. 7th June 2011 at 12:45 pm and the petition was already filed by Adv. Arup Borbora. We met all the lawyers and also the relatives. Das’s mother – Kusum Bala Das cried silently most of the time. His sister told me, “If anything happens to our brother, we all will kill ourselves.”
In the meantime,Adv. Arup Borbora asked for a special bench of two judges to be created and it was done as this was a special matter. The court proceedings began at 3:45 where a special bench of judges (Justice BP Katakey and Justice BK Sharma) was constituted to hear this matter as the Chief Justice was out of town. The counsel on behalf of the mother were Senior Advocates A.K. Bhattacharya, Arup Borbora and Yug Chaudhry. We were in Court Room No. 4 where the relatives asked me sit beside them. I sat next to them of course - more than for them, it was for my own contentment. The counsel Adv. Bhattacharya spoke and his opening line was, “There is a lawyer named Yug Chaudhry coming all the way from Mumbai for this.” The judge immediately said, “So what difference does it make?” Adv. Bhattacharya’s response was “Yes it makes a difference; it makes a difference because nobody in Assam came forward for this and it took a Human Rights advocate from Mumbai to do this. So it makes a difference” The judge had to agree.
The arguments went on. The judge asked, “So why have you come to the High Court? Why not go to the Apex Court?” Adv. Bhattacharya’s response every time was really good. He said, “Yes we should go to the Supreme Court. But who would go? This old mother? (Pointing at the mother) Do you think she’s in a capacity to go? Even if she goes, don’t you think that Mahendra Das will be hanged by then?” The question raised was to seek an explanation for the inordinate delay from President’s office.
The judge asked the State lawyers and all they could say was “How can we not listen to the Supreme court’s orders?” They have been asked to file a reply before the next hearing on 17th June. The judges gave a very positive order stating Triveniben (SCR p.596: SCC p.357: SCC (Cri) p.474, para 20). Till then the proposed execution of the man remained in suspension.
The next hearing took place on 17th July 2011. The family came to the court. We didn’t know till our matter came up that the State had filed a reply. However the Centre did not and hence we were given another date which is 21st July 2011. The family invited me to their home. I couldn’t say no. I travelled for three hours to reach their house. Mahendra Das’s house is in a pitiful state. A heavy rain can demolish the whole structure. The family has a hand to mouth existence. I wonder how they managed to come to Guahati High Court for the hearing spending so much of money! The mother spoke only in Assamese. His sister translated it for me. She asked me, “So when is my son going to be released?” I didn’t have an answer. The sister asked me, “So what will happen? Will his sentence be commuted to life?” I said, “We all are hoping for that but one simply cannot say ‘It will be done’. There is a great possibility that they might just reject it in the High Court. But we all still hope that the Court and the State of Assam will do everything in their power to commute this sentence”. She again asked, “But they haven’t found a hangman yet, have they?” I couldn’t bring myself to lie, I said, “If I am not mistaken, they have found a hangman from Meerut”. We all were silent for a moment. I again told them that, “We all hope that our country realizes that it is barbaric to execute a person after 15 years in the prison”. The relatives dropped me back in Guahati, asked me to come back again when Mahendra Das is home. I nodded and left.

RMG