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/

Uttar Pradesh - Man gets death penalty for murdering wife, two minor daughters in 2023

Lucknow (UP), Jun 3 (PTI): A court in Mahoba district has awarded the death penalty to a man convicted of murdering his wife and two minor daughters nearly three years ago, officials said on Wednesda.

By PTI : 04 Jun 2026 12:16 AM (IST)

According to the prosecution, the convict Devendra Vishwakarma, a resident of Samadnagar under Kotwali Nagar police station limits in Mahoba, killed his wife Ramkumari and their two daughters -- six-year-old Sonakshi and nine-year-old Ayushi -- by crushing their heads with a grinding stone on July 17, 2023. As per available information, Vishwakarma and his wife used to quarrel frequently over domestic disputes. On the day of the incident, the two again got into an argument, and in a fit of rage, Vishwakarma killed his wife and daughters.

As per a press statement, the case was registered at Kotwali Nagar police station. Police completed the investigation and filed a charge sheet before the court on August 24, 2023. Officials said the case was monitored under the Uttar Pradesh Police's Operation Conviction campaign.

Following sustained efforts by the monitoring cell and the prosecution, the court on June 3 found Vishwakarma guilty and sentenced him to death. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict. The prosecution was conducted by District Government Counsel Dinesh Kumar Singh and Assistant Government Counsel Surendra Rajput. Case investigator Inspector Upendra Pratap Singh and court liaison officer M.A. Prem Babu Dwivedi also played key roles in securing the conviction, officials said.

Source: https://news.abplive.com/news/india/man-gets-death-penalty-for-murdering-wife-two-minor-daughters-in-2023-1847996

Uttar Pradesh - 50-year-old man gets death penalty in 15-year-old double-murder case in Muzaffarnagar

PTI 

30 May, 2026 06:49 pm IST

Muzaffarnagar (UP), May 30 (PTI) A fast-track court here has awarded death penalty to a 50-year-old man for killing a woman and her six-year-old son in a case dating back nearly 15 years.

Additional District and Sessions Judge of the fast-track court, Ravi Kumar Diwakar, sentenced Rahis alias Zahid to death after convicting him for murder. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the convict. The judge observed that the case fell in the “rarest of rare” category, warranting capital punishment.

The sentence, however, will be subject to confirmation by the Allahabad High Court. Government counsel Kuldeep Kumar said the victims, Rajesh Devi (30) and her son Himanshu, were murdered at Alawalpur village under the Charthawal police station area of Mazaffarnagar district on November 7, 2011.

According to the prosecution, Rahis took Rajesh Devi and the child to a nearby sugarcane field and killed them by repeatedly hitting them with bricks after an argument. The bodies were found on November 13. The court pronounced its verdict on Friday. 

Source: https://theprint.in/india/50-year-old-man-gets-death-penalty-in-15-year-old-double-murder-case-in-muzaffarnagar/2946073/

Supreme Court acquits two death row convicts (Uttarakhand) in rape-murder case

Express News Service

Updated on: 29 May 2026, 4:14 am

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has acquitted two men sentenced to death by the Uttarakhand trial court and High Court for the alleged rape and murder of a 55-year-old woman in Uttarakhand on the grounds that the prosecution failed to establish a complete and reliable chain of circumstances connecting them with the crime.

“The FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) report merely records the presence of semen traces in the vaginal swab collected during the postmortem examination and does not, in the absence of any corroborative material, establish the appellants’ (Convicts) complicity in the alleged offence,” said a three-judge Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and Vijay Bishnoi.

Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and Vijay Bishnoi

Setting aside the judgments of the trial court and the HC, the SC said: “No DNA examination or scientific profiling was undertaken to establish the identity of the source of semen or to connect the same with either of the appellants”.

The court said the prosecution also failed to lead any evidence regarding the probable age or duration of the semen traces detected in the vaginal swab. “In the absence of such scientific evidence, no definite inference could be drawn that the deceased-victim had been subjected to the appeals filed by the murder convicts,” it said.

The judgment stated the prosecution’s case was marred by serious infirmities as regards DNA examination or scientific profiling linking the biological evidence with the accused persons.

The prosecution in the trial court and HC sought to establish the guilt primarily through two circumstances, the “last seen” theory and alleged recoveries made during the investigation. The top court eventually discarded these versions and acquitted the two accused.

Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/india/2026/May/29/sc-acquits-two-death-row-convicts-in-rape-murder-case

Uttar Pradesh - Man Receives Death Penalty for Family Murders

Devdiscourse News Desk | Kushinagar | India

Updated: 29-05-2026 23:14 IST | Created: 29-05-2026 23:14 IST

Rajesh Gupta has been sentenced to death by an Uttar Pradesh court for the 2021 murders of his wife and two young sons. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on Gupta, who allegedly killed his family by slitting their throats.

Rajesh Gupta

An Uttar Pradesh court handed down a death sentence to Rajesh Gupta for the brutal murder of his wife Nikki and their two sons in 2021. The verdict includes a fine of Rs 3 lakh, as announced by District and Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar Tyagi. 

According to District Government Advocates G P Yadav and Laxman Pathak, Gupta is to face execution by hanging. The tragic events unfolded when Nikki's brother, Amar Gupta, reported to the Turkapatti police station that his sister and her children, Shivam (7) and Ayush (3), were killed by their father. The gruesome act occurred at their residence with both a sickle and a knife, which were recovered by authorities. Nikki was married to Rajesh Gupta for eight years.

(With inputs from agencies.)

Source: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/3926444-man-receives-death-penalty-for-family-murders-in-uttar-pradesh?amp

Tamil Nadu: Man Gets Death Penalty For Sexual Assault, Murder Of Minor

Reported by:J Sam Daniel Stalin

India News - May 25, 2026 16:29 pm IST

The POCSO Special Court convicted Dharma Muneeswaran and sentenced him to death by hanging on both counts of sexual assault and murder, 77 days after the crime.

Tutucorin: A POCSO court in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu on Monday awarded a double death sentence to the key accused in the Tuticorin sexual assault and murder case, 77 days after the crime.

Dharma Muneeswaran

The victim, a 17-year-old Class 12 student in Vilathikulam who was reported missing, was found dead in a scrubland near her house in March this year. The POCSO Special Court convicted Dharma Muneeswaran and sentenced him to death by hanging on both counts of sexual assault and murder of the minor. With no CCTV cameras near the scene of crime, 10 special teams analysed 98 CCTV footages in other locations and examined 2,574 phone numbers using the tower dump method. The breakthrough came from a windmill camera that captured a suspicious two-wheeler near the crime scene. The bike's registration number had been tampered with, and the bike was found to be stolen.

Ellammal, Special Public Prosecutor - Mahila Court, Thoothukudi said "We were able to get a fair judgment in a short period of time because everybody who worked on this case was very responsible, and we all wanted to make sure that this should not happen to anybody else ever again". The order came on a day Chief Minister Joseph Vijay urged the police and authorities to expedite trials in sexual and offences against children and obtain stringent punishment through proper trial. Vijay had made women safety and law and order a key campaign issue during his campaign before elections. His meeting comes amid a spurt in sexual offences in the state, including the sexual assault and murder of a 10-year-old girl in Coimbatore, with the opposition targeting the TVK government.

(With inputs from Swarnamathi A)

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/man-gets-death-penalty-for-sexual-assault-murder-of-minor-in-tamil-nadu-11544711

Hyderabad: Man given death penalty for murdering in-laws

22 May 2026

Twenty-two months after a couple were murdered by their son-in-law in Warangal, a local court on Wednesday convicted and awarded him the death sentence. The first additional district court’s judge said in the verdict that apart from death penalty, the convict Mekala Nagaraju has to pay a fine of ₹5,000. 

Autorickshaw driver Mekala Nagaraju, a native of Gundenga village in Mahabubabad district, married Banoth Deepika from Warangal district in 2023 after eloping with her. However, a few days after their marriage, she returned to the residence of her parents – Banoth Srinu (50) and his wife Banoth Suguna (45), since she did not like Nagaraju’s conduct.

Mekala Nagaraju

Despite his repeated requests, Deepika refused to return to him. This made Nagaraju bear a grudge against her and felt that her parents have influenced Deepika. He also came to know that her parents had a plan to get her married to an another man and conspired to kill everyone in her family. On July 10, 2024, Deepika, her brother Srinivas and their parents – Srinu and Suguna were sleeping outside the house in the village.

“The accused with an intention to kill Deepika and her family members, reached her house. He first attacked her parents with a knife while they were asleep on the cot. Immediately, Deepika and her brother Srinivas out of fear tried to escape from the spot. Nagaraju chased and attacked them. Subsequently, he returned to Deepika’s parents’ place and stabbed them nearly 30 times,’’ Warangal police told TOI. Srinivas and Deepika too suffered multiple slash injuries.

During the trial, the witness statements given by Deepika, Srinivas and a few others turned out to be crucial in convicting Nagaraju.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/India/man-given-death-penalty-for-murdering-in-laws/ar-AA23L98d

Supreme Court overturns acquittal of 9, sentences them to life term in doctor’s murder case (Tamil Nadu)

PTI - 19 May, 2026 07:48 pm IST

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a Madras High Court order and restored the conviction of nine persons for their role in the 2013 broad-daylight murder of renowned Chennai-based neurologist Subbiah.

While the trial court had originally sentenced several of the accused to death, a bench comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma took note of the state government’s decision not to press for capital punishment and commuted the sentences to life imprisonment. Authoring the 96-page judgment, Justice Sharma began with a poignant quote from Rabindranath Tagore on the “capaciousness of greed”.

Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma

“The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life,” Tagore had said. The murder, which took place on September 14, 2013, was the culmination of a bitter, decade-long dispute over a two-acre land parcel in Kanyakumari.

Dr Subbiah had longstanding disputes with members of the accused family over ownership of the land. Multiple complaints had been filed before the Land Grabbing Cell, and tensions escalated after criminal proceedings and attempts to cancel the anticipatory bail obtained by some accused. The prosecution successfully proved that the family of one of the accused conspired with henchmen to “eliminate” the doctor, believing his death would allow them to seize the property.

The trial court, in 2021, found the accused guilty and sentenced seven of them to death. In June 2024, the Madras High Court set aside the conviction entirely, acquitting all accused after finding fault in the evidence of the “approver” (an accomplice-turned-witness) and the delay in witness statements. The top court reversed the high court’s acquittal, calling it a “grave error” and restoring the trial court’s findings of guilt. After trial proceedings involving 57 prosecution witnesses and extensive documentary and forensic evidence, the trial court convicted all the accused persons.

Source: https://theprint.in/india/sc-overturns-acquittal-of-9-sentences-them-to-life-term-in-doctors-murder-case/2935678/

Tamil Nadu: Nine Cops Get Death Sentence In Father-Son Custodial Torture Case

Reported by: J Sam Daniel Stalin

Edited by:Ashutosh Tripathi

India News

Apr 06, 2026 21:17 pm IST

The custodial torture dates back to June 19, 2020, when Jayaraj and Benicks, who ran a mobile shop, were arrested for allegedly keeping their shop open beyond permitted hours during the lockdown, a claim later found to be false.

A court in Tamil Nadu's Madurai district on Monday awarded death sentence to nine policemen in the custodial deaths of trader P Jayaraj and his son J Benicks in Thoothukudi district that triggered nationwide outrage six years ago. The nine policemen are Inspector Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, and police personnel Murugan, Samadurai, Muthuraja, Chelladurai, Thomas Francis, and Veilumuthu.

Underlining that this was a "case of abuse of authority", the court maintained that there are many honest police officers in Tamil Nadu and that the ruling will not "instill fear among police".

"Father and son stripped, ruthlessly assaulted... Heart shudders reading about it," the court said.

Delivering the verdict, the court made scathing observations on the conduct of the accused policemen. It said the father and son were "stripped and ruthlessly assaulted in front of each other as an act of vendetta," adding that "the heart shudders on reading about it." The court emphasised that the case was a clear instance of abuse of authority, noting that "those who receive public money as salary cannot cite stress as a reason" for such acts. It also remarked that but for the continuous monitoring by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, "the truth would have been buried."

Terming the brutal custodial torture and subsequent death of traders as the "rarest of rare" cases, the CBI had pressed for the maximum penalty of a death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The prosecution argued that the ghastly nature of the crime, supported by the testimonies of three direct witnesses, shocked the collective conscience of society. Highlighting the grave human rights violation, the CBI noted that the victims were subjected to merciless beatings with weapons, warranting the highest degree of punishment.

The custodial torture dates back to June 19, 2020, when Jayaraj and Benicks, who ran a mobile shop, were arrested for allegedly keeping their shop open beyond permitted hours during the lockdown, a claim later found to be false. The two were taken to the Sathankulam police station and later remanded to judicial custody. Within days, both died.

Relatives alleged that the men were assaulted through the night at the police station, pointing to injuries including rectal bleeding and other signs of severe physical abuse.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, which later took over the probe from the state's CB-CID following directions from the Madras High Court, arrested 10 policemen in connection with the case. Those arrested included an inspector, two sub-inspectors and several constables. The agency subsequently invoked murder charges against the accused officers.

During the investigation, a key development was the testimony of a woman constable who reportedly told investigators that the father and son were assaulted overnight and that there were blood stains on tables and lathis at the station. Investigators also faced challenges, including the deletion of crucial CCTV footage from the Sathankulam police station, as recordings were allegedly set to be erased automatically each day and were not preserved.

Over 100 witnesses were examined during the trial, which spanned more than five years.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/tamil-nadu-sathankulam-9-tamil-nadu-cops-get-death-sentence-over-father-son-custodial-torture-case-11318637

‘On a razor’s edge’: Punjab and Haryana HC commutes death sentence for Ludhiana toddler’s killer, imposes 50-year jail term

By: Express News Service

Chandigarh Mar 20, 2026 03:15 PM IST

The Punjab and Haryana High Court cited borderline “rarest of rare” status, investigative gaps, and non-premeditated murder.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently commuted the death sentence of a 28-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering a toddler in Ludhiana in 2023, holding that the case fell on the borderline between the “rarest of rare” category warranting capital punishment and one deserving a lesser penalty.

In a ruling uploaded Thursday, the Division Bench comprising Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur noted that several factors weighed against the award of capital punishment. These included lingering doubts, flaws in the investigation, such as a planted extra-judicial confession, contradictions in a key witness’s testimony, and the failure to examine an important witness.

Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur

However, the bench clarified that these issues did not affect the overall finding of guilt. “It is one of those rare cases where the line that separates the categories of the ‘rarest of rare’ from ‘rare’ is on the razor’s edge,” the court said.

The court upheld the conviction but modified the punishment: life imprisonment for murder (under Section 302 IPC) with a mandatory 50 years of actual imprisonment without any remission, plus 25 years’ rigorous imprisonment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. It also imposed substantially higher fines, Rs 50 lakh for the murder charge and Rs 25 lakh under the Pocso Act, to be disbursed to the victim’s family as compensation. The crime occurred on December 28, 2023, when the young girl, fondly called Laadli by the court, was lured from her grandfather’s tea stall to a nearby house. She was sexually assaulted, strangled, and her body was hidden. The perpetrator escaped but was apprehended roughly 20 days later.

The trial court had earlier imposed the death penalty, concluding that the crime’s aggravating elements far outweighed any mitigating ones.

‘A vulnerable female’

While confirming the accused’s involvement, the High Court emphasised that the murder appeared to stem from panic to conceal the rape rather than prior planning. The court highlighted broader societal shortcomings, noting that the child’s only “fault” was that she was born a female in a vulnerable position, and questioned why society and education systems have failed to instil fundamental respect for life.“All the tell-tale signs of crime point out that she was raped and murdered because Laadli was a vulnerable female.” Calling it a “clear systemic failure,” the court said, “Somewhere between teaching and learning, our curriculum and society failed to educate… basic respect for life.”

The court avoided direct criticism of the police, prosecutors, or the trial judge but pointed to systemic issues in recruitment and integrity. The court stressed that lapses, while not sufficient to acquit, weigh heavily against an irreversible penalty like death. Adopting an incapacitation-focused approach to sentencing, the court held that society could be protected by ensuring the convict remains in custody well into old age, beyond the “sunset of his virility”, with any future release dependent on the absence of continuing risk.

In the absence of formal sentencing guidelines, the court applied a “descending scale” model of proportionality, under which younger victims warrant harsher punishment. In this case, involving a child under five, the court found that 25 years of rigorous imprisonment under the Pocso Act, along with a fine, was appropriate. The judgment reaffirmed core principles: no one should be convicted without legal representation, factual evidence must prevail over minor contradictions, and the justice system must balance punishing the guilty while protecting the innocent.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/legal-news/punjab-haryana-high-court-commutes-death-sentence-ludhiana-toddler-murder-pocso-10592196/

Karnataka High Court upholds death penalty in child’s ‘barbaric’ gang-rape, murder: ‘To be curbed with iron hands’

The court has declared that the 2021 crime against a girl aged around eight was ‘rarest of rare’ cases

Updated - February 08, 2026 01:28 pm IST - Bengaluru

The Hindu Bureau

The High Court of Karnataka has confirmed the death sentence for three men convicted of the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl at a tile factory in Mangaluru, declaring the 2021 crime as a “rarest of rare” cases. A Division Bench comprising Justice H.P. Sandesh and Justice Venkatesh Naik T. in its February 4 verdict has dismissed the appeals of the convicts, identified as Jayban Adivasi and Mukesh Singh, both natives of Madhya Pradesh, and Manish Thirki, a native of Jharkhand, and upheld the capital punishment awarded by a Mangaluru special court for cases registered under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, in November 2024.

Justice H.P. Sandesh and Justice Venkatesh Naik T

In tile factory

The incident occurred on November 21, 2021, on the premises of the tile factory where both the victim’s parents, who are natives of Jharkhand, and the accused persons worked. The Bench found sufficient evidence to establish that the men, in a premeditated conspiracy, lured the child with sweets, took her to a secluded room on the tile factory premises, and subjected her to sequential rape and assault. And when she cried out due to bleeding injuries, Jayban Adivasi smothered her to death. Three of them then concealed her body in a drainage, the Bench noted.

The Bench affirmed the conviction by analysing a chain of circumstantial evidence, statements of eyewitnesses who had seen the victim girl with the three accused, conclusive DNA evidence linking the men to the crime, recovery of blood-stained clothing, and CCTV camera footage. The Bench noted the presence of chewed food particles in the victim’s teeth, corroborating the prosecution’s claim that she was lured with sweets. Assessing the materials on record, the Bench said that “there are no mitigating circumstances favouring the accused to reduce the sentence, since it is a gangrape of a minor girl, who was aged about 7 years and 7 months at the time of commission of the offence”.

Message to society

“If a lesser sentence is imposed, it will give a wrong message to society and the public at large, and this act of subjecting the minor girl to satisfy their lust would be encouraged as such act has to be curbed with iron hands,” the Bench observed.

The trial against another man, Munim Singh, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, who is arraigned as accused number-4 in the case, is pending as he absconded after obtaining bail from Mangaluru court before trial began.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/karnataka-high-court-confirms-death-penalty-for-three-men-in-gang-rape-and-murder-of-minor/article70604414.ece

Jharkhand High Court commutes man’s death penalty in rape and murder case to life term, cites lack of reform assessment

Written by Jagriti Rai

New Delhi | Updated: January 8, 2026 04:18 PM IST

Jharkhand High Court News: While citing the Supreme Court judgement, the bench said that the probability of reformation, rehabilitation and social re integration of the appellant, also can't be ruled out.

Jharkhand High Court News: The Jharkhand High Court recently commuted a trial court’s order of death sentence to a man into life imprisonment in the rape and murder case of a five-year-old girl.

A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai was hearing a review plea of a convict booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“Even in the backdrop of the fact that accused was involved in three similar nature of cases, and the case related to the gruesome rape and murder of a girl child, the apex court, laying down the law that in absence of any consideration about the probability of reformation, rehabilitation and social reintegration of the appellant into the society, the death sentence awarded upon, could not be maintained, commuted the death sentence of the accused,” the court observed. Referring to the top court’s Sachin Kumar Singhraha vs. State of MP decision, the high court added that the probability of reformation, rehabilitation, and social reintegration of the appellant cannot be ruled out.

Jharkhand High Court News: Jharkhand High Court was hearing a plea filed convict and commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Case

According to the prosecution, the case dates back to 2022, when the man approached the victim. Later, the child’s body was discovered at a secluded place, and the medical examination confirmed the child had been sexually assaulted and then strangulated. In 2023, the police submitted the chargesheet, and the trial court took formal cognisance of the offences under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the IPC and Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act. While taking into consideration the “last seen” testimony and medical experts who detailed the brutal nature of the injuries, the trial court ordered the death penalty for the convict. Following this, the convict approached the high court against his conviction.

Decision

Drawing on the landmark judgments in Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik vs. State of Maharashtra the court held that though the extreme penalty of death was not warranted in the facts of this case, the accused does not deserve any major leniency in the matter of remission of the sentence, awarding the capital punishment of death to the petitioner for the offence under Section 302 of the IPC, is hereby, commuted to the life sentence. Commuting the death penalty to a life sentence, the court said that the alternative option shall serve the interest of justice. The court added that the sentence passed against the petitioner for the offence under Section 6 of the POCSO Act shall also run concurrently.

“We also hereby affirm his sentence for the offence under Section 6 of the Act,” the court observed. “Accordingly, the trial court judgment of conviction stands affirmed, with the modification in the sentence of the convict,” the court ruled. The bench also ordered the compensation to the parents of the victim under the ‘victim compensation scheme’.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/legal-news/jharkhand-high-court-overturns-death-sentence-in-minors-rape-and-murder-case-cites-lack-of-reform-assessment-10461700/

Punjab - Death sentence commuted after 19 years: Why ‘illegal solitary confinement’ saved 2 convicts from gallows

A bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rohit Kapoor allowed the appeal filed by the two convicts and commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment.

Written by Ashish Shaji

New Delhi | Updated: January 7, 2026 06:23 PM IST

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty of two men convicted for kidnapping and murdering a minor boy for ransom in 2005 on the grounds of their illegal solitary confinement and the state’s delay in deciding mercy petitions. A bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rohit Kapoor allowed the appeal filed by the two convicts and commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives without any commutation or premature release.

Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor

“The death sentence awarded to the appellants shall be commuted and shall be substituted with a sentence of imprisonment for life, for the remainder of their natural lives, and they shall not be entitled to any commutation or premature release,” the court ordered. Interestingly, the bench started its verdict quoting American journalist and writer Rick Bragg as saying, “Every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged the shell that carries it.” 

The order also quoted Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith as saying, “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent”.

Scottish Economist and Philosopher Adam Smith (Source: Wiki)

Case

The two men were arrested for the 2005 kidnapping and murder of a sixteen year old boy from Hoshiarpur. The convicts had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. The trial court awarded them the death penalty in 2006 which was later confirmed by the high court. In 2008, the Supreme Court also upheld the death sentence awarded to the two convicts. The review petitions filed before the Supreme Court were dismissed. They moved mercy petitions in 2012, however, it was rejected by the governor of Punjab in 2015.

Both the convicts approached the high court after rejection of their mercy petitions for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment and for quashing the death warrants. The single judge dismissed their pleas. Subsequently, the convicts filed individual appeals before the division bench.

Findings

The court observed that the convicts were subjected to illegal solitary confinement from 2006 to 2009, prior to the exhaustion of their judicial remedies. “It stands duly established that the appellants, were illegally kept under solitary confinement for the afore-mentioned period in violation of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Sunil Batra’s case, before the exhaustion of their judicial remedies,” the court noted. On the issue of delay, the court found that a total period of more than four years of unexplained and unreasonable delay in processing the mercy petitions was attributable to the State authorities. 

It observed that the convicts were neither promptly informed of their right to file mercy petitions nor provided legal aid, contrary to mandatory guidelines. “We find that after the rejection of the review petitions of the appellants by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 20.04.2011, they were not informed about the right to file mercy petitions, nor any legal aid was provided, in violation of the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the directions in the case of Shatrugan Chauhans’ case (supra), leading to a delay of more than one year and four months in filing of the mercy petitions,” the order read. The court held that all these supervening factors resulted in infringement of the rights of the convicts under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/legal-news/death-sentence-commuted-after-19-years-why-illegal-solitary-confinement-saved-2-convicts-from-gallows-10460076/