Blue drum case: The shocking Meerut murder in which Muskan Rastogi, her lover got the death penalty

Meerut woman Muskan Rastogi murdered her merchant navy officer husband, Saurabh Rajput, in 2025, with the help of her lover, Sahil Shukla. They then concealed the dismembered body inside a drum using concrete and sand. After a 13-month trial, 126 hearings, and testimony from over 22 witnesses, the court delivered its verdict: capital punishment for the accused

FP Explainers|Oct 14, 2026, 21:33:11 IST

Remember the chilling Meerut blue drum murder? The infamous Muskan Rastogi? The incident that shook the entire nation in 2025?... Today (October 14), the case reached a major milestone after Muskan and her lover Sahil Shukla were given a death sentence by a local court for murdering a merchant navy officer, Saurabh Rajput, in 2025.

Saurabh Rajput Merchant Navy officer from UP's Meerut was murdered by his wife Muskan and her lover. Image Courtesy: X

On September 30, the pair was convicted by District and Sessions Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra, with the sentence announced today. Following a 13-month trial, 126 hearings, and testimony from over 22 witnesses, the court delivered its verdict in favour of Saurabh, Muskan’s husband and a former Merchant Navy officer.

The case drew significant attention after Saurabh's body was found in a concrete-filled blue plastic drum, which later became the most crucial evidence in the horrific murder case.

While pronouncing the verdict, the judge reportedly said that "such crimes create fear in society at large."

On February 24, 2025, Saurabh returned to Meerut from London, and the next day the family celebrated Muskan’s birthday. On March 3, 2025, Muskan sedated Saurabh, her husband, at their Indra Nagar home by lacing his food, after which Sahil arrived. The duo then stabbed Saurabh to death and dismembered his body. They then packed his body parts into a large blue plastic drum and sealed it with a mixed wet compound of sand, water, and cement, according to the prosecution.

The next day after committing the heinous crime, the murderer duo fled to Himachal Pradesh, and Muskan used Saurabh's phone to drop messages to his family in order to show that he was alive and travelling for business. In mid-March 2025, suspicion grew, and relatives visited the residence and local authorities, leading to further action in the case.

Saurabh and Muskan's six-year-old daughter had told neighbours, "Papa is in the drum," the NDTV reported. On March 17, 2025, the sealed blue drum was finally opened by cops and relatives at the Indra Nagar residence and Saurabh’s remains were recovered. The horrific murder then came to light.

On March 18, 2025, police arrested Muskan and Sahil in connection with the murder and the duo were sent to 14 days of judicial custody on March 19, 2025. On May 12, 2025, 1,000 pages of the chargesheet were filed by police, citing 34 witness remarks as part of the case against the accused.

In July 2025, the trial started before the District Judge’s court in Meerut. The proceedings continued in the months that followed. A chain of technical and physical evidence was presented by the prosecution throughout the trial. Local shopkeepers gave their statements and admitted to selling the specific blue plastic drum, cement bags, sand, cleavers, and razors to Muskan and Shukla before the murder.

Call detail records and location signals detected Saurabh at the residence during the specific time of the crime, while the duo's joint movement to hotels in Shimla and Manali in Himachal was traced. The post-mortem also confirmed that Saurabh died after being stabbed to death.

The conviction and punishment

On September 30, 2026, the district and session court convicted the duo following a 13-month trial. The court postponed the sentencing decision until October 14. Following a hearing on arguments on punishment, the court sentenced Muskan and Sahil to death today. The prosecution pushed for the death penalty, arguing the murder’s premeditated nature and exceptional brutality. Saurabh’s family also sought capital punishment.

What's next for Muskan & Sahil

The death sentence handed down by the Meerut court is subject to confirmation by the Allahabad High Court. The murderer duo also have the option of appealing to the Supreme Court. They can subsequently pursue review petitions and demand clemency through mercy petitions under India’s legal framework. Therefore, the October 14 sentencing order does not mark the conclusion of the legal proceedings in the blue drum murder case. The death sentence must first go through the prescribed judicial process before it can be carried out.

With inputs from agencies

Source: https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/blue-drum-case-the-shocking-meerut-murder-in-which-muskan-rastogi-her-lover-got-the-death-penalty-14052887.html

(Uttar Pradesh) Meerut court sentences woman, lover to death for strangling husband, staging snakebite death

Namita Bajpai

16 Oct 2026, 4:35 pm

As per the details of the case, Ravita and Amardeep bought a snake from a snake charmer for ₹1,000.

Representative Image Photo | IANS

LUCKNOW: Close on the heels of the death penalty awarded to the accused couple in the infamous blue drum case of Meerut, another couple — Ravita and her lover Amardeep — were sentenced to death on Friday for murdering Ravita’s husband and making it appear that his death was due to a snakebite.

Before the sentence was announced, Additional District Judge (ADJ-12) and Sessions Judge Jaiveer Singh Nagar heard the final statements of both jailed accused through video conferencing.

While replying to the judge, Ravita pleaded that she had three young children and that someone should be there to take care of them. She then fell silent. Amardeep said his parents were old and had no one to look after them. He requested that their care should not be neglected. After this, both broke down and began weeping.

Amit Kashyap was a resident of Akbarpur Sadat village under the jurisdiction of Bahsuma police station in Meerut district. Amardeep worked with Amit installing tiles and stone and used to frequent his house. During this time, Amardeep grew close to Ravita. Amit became aware of the relationship, after which Ravita and Amardeep conspired to kill him. On the night of April 17, 2025, Ravita and Amardeep allegedly strangled Amit Kashyap, Ravita’s husband, to death. They then left a snake on the bed to make it appear that he had died of a snakebite. A live snake was found beneath the victim’s body.

As per the details of the case, Ravita and Amardeep bought a snake from a snake charmer for ₹1,000. On the night of April 17, after Amit had gone to sleep, Ravita called her boyfriend Amardeep to the house. They strangled Amit and then released the snake on his bed. Ravita sent her boyfriend away and went to sleep in another room.

When the family woke up in the morning, they found Amit dead. There were marks on his body that appeared to be snakebites. His family believed he had died from a snakebite and called a snake charmer, who caught the snake and took it away.

Though the post-mortem report revealed 10 bite marks on the victim’s body, it was ascertained that Amit had been strangled. The snake charmers also told investigators that the snake had no fangs and could not have caused the death.Based on suspicion, police first detained Ravita. During questioning, she named Amardeep. When police interrogated both of them, they confessed to the crime.

The investigation later revealed that the snake used to stage the bite was neither venomous nor did it have fangs. Ravita remained in Meerut jail since then, while Amardeep was released on bail.

Police filed the charge sheet within 60 days of the murder. The case was heard in the court of ACJM-12 Jaiveer Singh Nagar. The court delivered the verdict after 551 days of trial, 87 hearings and testimony from 12 witnesses.

On October 7, the court found Ravita and Amardeep guilty of murder. The judge also directed the District Magistrate of Meerut to ensure the care of the couple’s three children. Ravita and Amardeep were produced in court. Special Public Prosecutor Farzana Maqsood represented the prosecution, while Ravita and Amardeep’s lawyers, Omkar Singh Bhati and Balraj, the lawyer representing the deceased Amit, presented their arguments. The hearing lasted for around an hour.

Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/uttar-pradesh/2026/Oct/16/meerut-court-sentences-woman-lover-to-death-for-strangling-husband-staging-snakebite-death 

Kolkota - HC focuses on ‘transformative justice’, commutes death to life

Kolkata: Every person guilty of commission of a grave offence can undergo transformation, Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri circuit bench on Aug 28 observed while setting aside the death penalty awarded by a trial court to a north Bengal man for murdering his wife.

The division bench of Justices Shampa Sarkar and Smita Das De upheld the conviction of Sujit Dey Bhowmick but held that the case failed the ‘rarest of the rare’ test for him to be awarded the death penalty. The two-judge bench commuted the man’s death sentence to life imprisonment.

The case dates back to June 20, 2023. Sujit and his wife Mitali were in the bedroom of Mitali’s father’s house in Maynaguri. Their seven-year-old son was playing outside the room. Mitali’s mother and grandmother were in the kitchen preparing breakfast. At 10 am, they started fighting. Sujit, in a fit of rage, got an axe and attacked his wife. Hearing Mitali’s screams, her mother and grandmother rushed in to rescue her but they too were attacked by Sujit. All this took place in front of the seven-year-old and Mitali’s sister.

A Jalpaiguri judge sentenced Sujit to death for the murder of his wife and to life imprisonment with a Rs 1 lakh fine for attempting to murder his in-laws. When sentencing Sujit to death, the trial court tagged him a “demon” whose mind could not be changed even if he was given training and spiritual lectures in the correctional home.

“We do not agree to the death penalty. Every person guilty of commission of a grave offence can undergo transformation,” the division bench held while also stating that the trial judge did not call for any report from the state relating to Sujit’s conduct in custody and the mental condition, or prison conduct report.

Citing the information produced by the probation officer, the division bench noted that Sujit’s conduct was “satisfactory” and there was a “chance of reformation”; moreover, he was undergoing counselling. It was noted that he did not have any criminal antecedents. His minor son is good at studies and he was also responsible for his elderly mother.

The trial judge, while awarding the death penalty, stressed the Vedic mantras chanted by the spouses at the time of marriage and arrived at the conclusion that Sujit did not hesitate to murder his wife and “chose to forget the love, affection, contribution and sacrifice of his spouse; this was a rarest of ‘rare’ case to award death penalty.”

The division bench held: “The judge was required to record special reasons for awarding death penalty and we find that the special reasons recorded by the learned judge were entirely based on the rituals of a Hindu Marriage. The other factor which weighed heavily on the learned judge was that the victim was killed in her own father’s house in the presence of all her family members, which was indicative of extreme brutality and demonic nature of the appellant. We do not agree.”

Source: https://bengalinfo.com/newsdetail.php?newsid=518188

Maharashtra - Palghar Court awards death penalty to man for rape and murder of 9-year-old girl

Calling it a crime of “extreme brutality”, the court says the accused’s actions shocked the conscience of both the judiciary and society before awarding capital punishment

PTI

Palghar, Updated At : 10:05 PM Aug 07, 2026 IST

A court in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on Friday sentenced a man to death for raping and hacking a nine-year-old girl to death in Dahanu taluka in 2021, stating that the extreme brutality and heinous nature of the crime shocked the conscience of the judiciary as well as society.

Additional Sessions Judge A R Rahane sentenced 51-year-old Pramul alias Praffula alias Pramod Ratna Ghoshe, a grocer, to death, and also imposed a fine of Rs 75,000 on him. The court said a child who was supposed to spend her time in cheerfulness was instead dealt with animal passion by an acquaintance of her father’s age.

Ghoshe was held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 376(2)(j) (aggravated rape committed on a woman when she is incapable of giving consent), 376(2)(n) (committing rape repeatedly on the same woman), 376AB (committing rape on a female minor under twelve years of age), and 376-A (causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim during rape), and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

He was also convicted for trying to kill an eyewitness. Special public prosecutors Rekha N Hivrale and J N Suryavanshi said the incident occurred on September 27, 2021, in Ranshet Vangadpada village in Dahanu.

The victim, a Class IV student, was sent by her mother to buy groceries from a local shop. On her way to the shop, the accused lured the child to his house with a Rs 10 coin and sexually assaulted her. When the injured child ran out shouting that she would tell her father, Ghoshe chased her with a 37-centimeter-long sharp sickle and repeatedly inflicted severe injuries upon her head, neck, face, and hands near a water tank.

An eyewitness passing by on a motorcycle, Vikas Barkya Bholada, tried to intervene. But Ghoshe attacked him with the sickle, inflicting wounds to his neck and back before fleeing. The minor girl succumbed to multiple severe injuries, including a slashed neck that severed her spinal cord, they said.

The court examined 24 prosecution witnesses in the case.

The guilt of the accused was established beyond reasonable doubt primarily through the direct testimony of the injured informant. Additionally, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) profiling established a mixed DNA match on the victim’s vulval, cervical, and anal swabs that matched the DNA of both the victim and the accused. The chain of evidence was further strengthened by the recovery of the murder weapon, a sickle, hidden in bushes behind a closed shop.

The court acquitted the accused under section 12 of the POCSO Act (sexual harassment via obscene media), as FSL analysis could not conclusively verify the exact timeframe the obscene media clips were accessed relative to the crime.

The judge said that the court, while appreciating evidence, should not lose sight of the realities of life or take an unrealistic approach by sitting in an ivory tower. The judge noted a galloping tendency in recent times to acquit an accused easily, emphasising that society suffers equally from wrong acquittals as it does from wrong convictions. Public servants must prima facie be presumed to act honestly and conscientiously, and their evidence should be assessed on its intrinsic worth rather than discarded merely because they are public servants interested in the success of the case, it said.

Talking about the case, the court noted that the 46-year-old accused formulated a “sinister design” to trap a nine-year-old innocent victim and resorted to a diabolical method by luring her with a Rs 10 coin before cruelly ravishing her.

“To satiate his sexual appetite and enormous perversity, the accused did not stop at vaginal intercourse but also committed anal intercourse with the minor victim, sickeningly raping her to fulfill his lust and cold-bloodedly murdering her when no one was around to protect her,” it said.

“The rape caused a monstrous burial of the child’s dignity in the darkness, and the appalling cruelty shown to her was extremely shocking, especially when considering the age difference between them,” he said.

The court further reflected on the immense emotional distress and trauma the victim’s family must have experienced, noting that a child who was supposed to spend her time in cheerfulness was instead dealt with animal passion by an acquaintance of her father’s age.

“The victim could not have imagined in her wildest dreams that he harboured such sinister designs against her,” the court said.

The judge highlighted that the accused committed a cold-blooded murder without any provocation, noting that while the victim’s fragile frame would have collapsed from a single blow, the accused continued to literally chop her, causing as many as 20 injuries across various body parts.

“The extreme brutality and heinous nature of the crime shocked not only the judicial conscience but also that of the entire society, as such barbaric treatment of an innocent, helpless child assumes proportions of extreme depravity and revulsion in the mind of any stranger,” it said.

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/palghar-court-awards-death-penalty-to-man-for-rape-and-murder-of-9-year-old-girl/amp

Maharashtra - Why Pune court felt even death penalty wasn’t enough for 65-year-old Nasrapur rape-murder convict

Special POCSO court said there was ‘concrete evidence’ to prove sexual assault and medical findings establish 3-yr-old girl was ‘brutally raped, sexually assaulted and then killed’.

Purva Chitnis 01 July, 2026 05:08 pm IST

Mumbai: Observing that this was a rarest of rare cases and even the death penalty may not be punishment enough given the magnitude of the crime, a special (POCSO) court in Pune earlier this week sentenced 65-year-old Bhimrao Prabhakar Kamble to death for the rape and murder of a 3-year-old child in Nasrapur. The court reasoned that “satisfaction of lust” was the only motive and the motive is “sufficient test to qualify” the death sentence.

Bhimrao Prabhakar Kamble

The judgment, accessed by ThePrint, also said there was “clear evidence of vaginal and anal penetration,” besides the “possibility of oral penetration”. During the course of the trial, the court also relied on the testimonies of children who were playing hide-and-seek with the victim before the incident, as well as a local vendor who saw Kamble heading towards the scene of the crime with her.

Special judge S.R. Salunkhe, who authored the judgment, also said the court examined medical findings, eyewitness accounts, CCTV footage and photos from the scene of crime to ascertain the magnitude of barbarity perpetrated by Kamble. Bhimrao Kamble’s conviction marked only the second instance in over a decade when a court in Maharashtra delivered its ruling in a POCSO case in less than 60 days from the date of commencement of the trial. Prior to this, a court had within 45 days sentenced Vashi resident Dattatraya Rokade to death for the rape and murder of his 5-year-old neighbour in 2013. His sentence was upheld by Bombay High Court but commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court in 2019. In the present case, the chargesheet was filed within 16 days of the incident, and hearings began on 28 May.

Sequence of events

According to the sequence of events recorded in the judgment, Kamble was seen sitting on the steps of Shriram temple where the victim was playing hide-and-seek with her friends on the day of the incident (1 May). Kamble, eyewitnesses told the court, scared the other children away around 2.30 pm by pelting a brick at them.

Around 4 pm, the victim’s grandmother noticed that the child was missing. She alerted family members who, along with neighbours, began searching for the child. Examining CCTV footage in the process, they spotted Kamble kidnapping the girl.

They eventually tracked down Kamble but could not find the girl. It was when they searched the cowshed that they found her body under a gunny bag. Details recorded in the judgment reveal that her leggings were stuffed into her mouth and she had injuries on her face, chest and blood clots near her private parts.

Eyewitnesses

During the course of the trial, the prosecution examined 55 witnesses including local villagers, forensic experts and investigating officers, among others.

Key witnesses included Sandeep and Sandhya Gayawal, owners of the cowshed where Kamble perpetrated the crime. Sandhya told the court that the family employed Kamble as a farm labourer when needed, but he regularly fed the cows and cleaned the cowshed while staying in a tin shed adjacent to it. She also revealed that Kamble may have first seen the victim a day before the incident, when the minor along with other children from the neighbourhood visited the cowshed to see a newborn calf.

Sandeep Gayawal’s nephew Omkar was another key witness in the case. Omkar and his cousin Samiksha had, upon examining CCTV footage, first spotted Kamble going to the cowshed along with the victim. The court also admitted the testimony of one Yogesh Jangam. Kamble, court records show, purchased a savoury snack from Jangam that morning. This was how Jangam was able to identify Kamble when he saw the 65-year-old and the victim walking towards the cowshed around 3.12 pm. At about 3.51 pm, Jangam saw Kamble exiting the cowshed and walking towards the public water tank.

The court also relied on the testimonies of three children, Mohammed Aga, Ashan Ansari and Rudra Salunke. During a test identification parade, all three identified Kamble as the man they saw sitting on the steps of Shriram temple.

“These children already knew the accused, as he was working as a sweeper in their school. The competence to depose before the court of these children was duly verified and they were found to be competent to speak the truth,” the special POCSO court noted.

‘Death due to asphyxia’

According to the judgment, the post-mortem report mentioned 18 injuries on the victim’s body, caused by a hard and blunt object. The court accepted that “the death was due to asphyxia due to combined effects of smothering and gagging, associated with blunt trauma to chest (homicidal assault), with evidence of recent act of sexual assault in terms of vaginal penetration, anal penetration and seminal discharge over body”.

It stated that there was “concrete evidence” to prove sexual assault and the medical findings establish that the girl was “brutally raped, sexually assaulted and thereafter she was killed”. Further, the court found that there was evidence to suggest attempted sexual assault “even after her death”.

“She was killed by gagging her leggings into the mouth 21 cm deep which was sufficient to cause her death. All these circumstances leave no room for doubt that the accused has committed the said crime,” read the judgment.

Accused’s past

During the course of the trial, Kamble admitted that he was accused of the attempted rape of a woman in 1998, when he was 36-years-old. Seventeen years later, when was 53-years-old, Kamble faced yet another case for attempting to outrage the modesty of his 17-year-old girl niece while threatening her with a sickle.

In both these cases, he was acquitted.

During the course of the present trial, one of Kamble’s relatives also recalled an incident from 1996. Kamble, he said, was grazing she-goats and the he was grazing his cattle near a hillock in Salwade village when he saw Kamble trying to sexually assault a she-goat. The prosecution argued that Kamble’s track record was proof he remains “a menace to society since he has no remorse and is beyond reformation”. The special POCSO court heard the submission by the defence counsel that the prosecution’s case was based on the ‘last seen together’ theory and circumstantial evidence.

However, it ultimately ruled that the prosecution was able to prove Kamble’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by “establishing the continuous and complete chain of circumstances”. In its final conclusion, the court said that the evidence on record “conclusively established” that Kamble committed the crime.

“The involvement of the accused in committing the crime has been conclusively established with electronic evidence in the form of CCTV footage. The sexual and bodily assaults are proved by medical evidence. The authorship of the accused for those assaults has been proved by scientific evidence, such as DNA, semen and other forensic reports,” it ruled. It added that the mental health status and potency test reports revealed Kamble was physically and mentally fit and sexually competent, and even the “punishment of death may not be adequate but it is the greater punishment that can be awarded for such crime”.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

Source: https://theprint.in/india/why-pune-court-felt-even-death-penalty-wasnt-enough-for-65-year-old-nasrapur-rape-murder-convict/2974792/?amp

Telangana: Man, sister awarded death for patricide

Siddhardha Gattimi

Updated on: 09 Jun 2026, 6:11 am

HYDERABAD: In a rare instance of a woman being awarded capital punishment, a Medchal-Malkajgiri district court on Monday sentenced a brother and sister to death for murdering their father, dismembering his body and concealing the remains in plastic buckets. Their mother was sentenced to life imprisonment for her role in the conspiracy and cover-up. The court held that the crime fell within the “rarest of rare” category.

Representative image 

Medchal-Malkajgiri principal district and sessions judge V Bala Bhaskar Rao pronounced the sentence. The convicts were identified as 47-year-old Kishan Suthar alias Rahul (A1), his 65-year-old mother Ganga Bai (A2), and his 36-year-old sister Prapulla alias Pappi (A3). According to the prosecution, the accused conspired to murder Maruthi Suthar, a retired Railway employee. Evidence presented during the trial showed that they were financially dependent on the deceased, who was receiving a pension after retirement.

The court found that the accused had administered poisonous datura alkaloids to the victim, resulting in his death. During the trial, it emerged that they had been mixing datura extract into his food for several days to test its effects. To conceal the crime, they dismembered the body and stored the remains in six plastic buckets inside their residence.

The crime came to light after neighbours noticed a foul smell from the house and alerted authorities. Police recovered the body parts and gathered forensic and circumstantial evidence linking the accused to the offence. After examining aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the court concluded that Kishan Suthar and Prapulla deserved the maximum punishment under law. They were sentenced to death and fined Rs 10,000 each for the murder.

Considering her age and other mitigating factors, the court sentenced Ganga Bai to rigorous imprisonment for life and imposed a fine of `10,000. All three convicts were also awarded additional prison terms for criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence, with the sentences directed to run concurrently.

Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/telangana/2026/Jun/09/telangana-man-sister-awarded-death-for-patricide

Gujrat - ‘Habitual’ acid attacker gets death for Surat man’s murder while on parole

In 2000, Bechar Kakadiya was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Surat district court for an acid attack on his brother-in-law Shantilal Patel, causing his death. In 2004, when he was out on parole, he attacked his wife and another brother-in-law, Dhansukh Patel, in a similar manner.

By: Express News Service

Surat Updated: Jun 5, 2026 09:02 AM IST

Previously convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for it, a 55-year-old man was on Thursday awarded the death penalty for the murder of a 23-year-old man, who was attacked with concentrated acid and then hacked to death, over a financial dispute, police officials said.

The judgment was given by the Surat district additional sessions court judge J L Shrimali.

In 2000, Bechar Kakadiya, a resident of Mota Varachha in Surat, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Surat district court for an acid attack on his brother-in-law Shantilal Patel, causing his death. In 2004, when he was out on parole, he attacked his wife and another brother-in-law, Dhansukh Patel, in a similar manner, severely injuring them. Both of them survived an acid attack. He was then arrested by Katargam police. After the case trial, he was convicted for three years. Sources in the department said Kakadiya’s mercy petition in 2010 was accepted, and he was released in 2013 after spending ten years in the Surat jail.

Bechar Kakadiya

Sometime later, Kakadiya invested Rs 15 lakh in a business partnership with another former fellow jail inmate Kirti Doshi. The dispute between them arose when Kakadiya wanted to withdraw his investment. Pandesara police officials said Kakadiya then met Yash Doshi (23) in Pandesara GIDC, and had a heated exchange with him. He attacked Yash with acid, and when the latter tried to escape, Kakadiya chased him and inflicted repeated blows on him with a sharp weapon (cutter). The incident reportedly took place on March 28, 2019.

A complaint in connection with the murder was registered at the Pandesara police station. Kakadiya was booked under IPC sections 302 (Murder) and 326 (a, b) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by acid), and arrested the next day. Since then, Kakadiya has remained in judicial custody at the Surat Central Jail in Lajpore. The police charge sheet was filed with 60 pieces of documentary evidence and 54 witnesses, of whom 33 testified.

While Kakadiya was convicted last month on May 30, the punishment was announced on Thursday. Assistant public prosecutor Tejash Pancholi had sought capital punishment. Pancholi, in his arguments, stated that Kakadiya was a “habitual” offender of acid attack. The Thursday order stated: “Convict Becharbhai Kakadiya is punished with capital punishment (to be hanged till death) under IPC 302, and a fine of Rs. 50,000. Under IPC 326(A), he is punished with life imprisonment.” In the order, the court observed: “It is found that the accused has committed a serious and anti-social crime, and keeping in mind all the aspects so that such anti-social crimes are not repeated, and that there is no possibility of his improvement, the accused should be appropriately punished.

Considering the above facts on record, the criminal behaviour of the accused and the fact that the present crime has been committed by the accused himself. It is found in the interest of justice to punish the accused as appropriate, reasonable, and fair as prescribed in the law.” Talking to The Indian Express, the additional public prosecutor said, “Seeing [Kakadiya’s] behaviour and his history of acid attacks on three persons…the accused is a threat to society. We had requested the court to punish him with capital punishment by hanging.”

Defence counsel K B Bakshi did not respond to multiple calls.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/legal-news/surat-court-death-penalty-bechar-kakadiya-habitual-acid-attacker-murder-10724841/