The Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld death sentence of Fatehgarh Sahib resident for killing 4 members of a family, including 2 children, in 2004.
The convict, Khushwinder Singh, had killed Kulwant Singh (40), his wife Harjit Kaur (38), their daughter Ramandeep Kaur (16) and son Avrinder Singh (14) in June 2004 by pushing them into the Sirhind canal.
Khushwinder had revealed details of the 2004 murders during interrogation after his arrest for murders of another 6 people in similar fashion in 2012. He is already on death row for the 2012 murders.
“The present case falls within the ambit of rarest of rare cases. The appellant has killed 4 persons, including 2 minor children. Whether the extreme penalty of death sentence is to be awarded, a balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances has to be drawn up,” said the high court division bench, comprising Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill, after dismissing the appeal filed by Khushwinder challenging his death sentence.
The high court said the prosecution has proved its case against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt and the trial court had correctly appreciated the oral as well as documentary evidence.
“The case though based on circumstantial evidence, the chain is complete. The motive attributed to the appellant is that he wanted to grab money of Kulwant Singh, who had recently sold land. The appellant had taken Kulwant and his family to Bhakra canal on the pretext of receiving blessings from some “Baba.” He pushed them into the canal on June 3, 2004 while they were offering prayers. Bodies of Kulwant and his daughter Ramandeep were recovered. However, the bodies of his wife and son were never recovered,” the high court observed while upholding the sentence.
Special CBI court in Mohali had on August 28, 2018 ordered that Khushwinder should be hanged by the neck till he is dead for the murders and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.
HC sends death penalty ruling back to trial court
3 years after a Thane cour awarded death penalty to a man for raping and murdering a 7-year-old girl, the Bombay High Court Thursday remanded the case back to it on account of procedural lapses.
A bench of justices B P Dharmadhikari and P D Naik set aside the trial court's order awarding Atul Rama Lote death penalty Thursday. It remanded the case back to the trial court, asking it to reconsider the facts and evidence and decide whether to hold a retrial or proceed anew from the stage of framing of charges -- when procedural lapses were committed.
On September 28, 2016, the Thane court awarded Lote death sentence. He was accused of abducting, raping and killing the minor daughter of an acquaintance in 2014.
When the state government's petition seeking confirmation of death sentence was taken up by the High Court, Lote's lawyer Yug Chaudhary pointed out certain lapses.
In February 2014, the police charge sheeted Lote under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (A) (kidnapping a minor girl with the intent of forcing her to have intercourse), 376 (rape) and 302 (murder), Chaudhary said.
Generally, these offences attract life imprisonment or 10 years in jail, and death is awarded only in the "rarest of rare cases", he argued.
On September 26, 2016, 2 days before the sentence was passed, the prosecution invoked section 376(2) of the IPC (rape of a victim under 12 years of age) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, making it a case fit for death penalty, the lawyer pointed out.
The court should not have permitted amendment of charges just 2 days before the verdict, Chaudhary said.
He also argued that Lote did not get proper legal assistance from his lawyers, appointed through Legal Aid.
The high court said it could not overlook these procedural lapses and especially the fact that 2 key charges were pressed only 2 days before the verdict.
It, however, refused to acquit Lote, and said instead the trial court must consider Lote as an undertrial and reexamine the proceedings.
Sources: The Times of India, business-standard.com, Staff, April 26, 2019
1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict dies in Nagpur jail
Abdul Gani Turk (68), convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Thursday died at Nagpur Central jail where he was lodged after his conviction.
The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court Judge Pramod Dattatraya Kode awarded him capital punishment after finding him guilty of planting a bomb at Century Bazaar.
Turk, a former employee of prime absconding accused Tiger Memon, was awarded capital punishment for parking a jeep filled with RDX at Century Bazaar in Worli. This blast caused the maximum fatalities – 113 – and injured 227 people.
Later, the Supreme Court commuted Turk’s death penalty to life sentence and then he was shifted to Nagpur jail in 2012.
According to Nagpur jail superintendent Rani Bhosle, Turk was not keeping well for some time and was taken to the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here on April 22. Later, he was brought back and treated at the prison hospital. He fell unconscious Thursday morning and was rushed to the GMCH where he was declared dead around 12.45 pm.
Turk had suffered a paralytic attack last year. The cause of death will be known after the autopsy report is available, the superintendent added.
Actor Sanjay Dutt was among those convicted in this case though he was acquitted from the charges of TADA and convicted under the Arms Act. The serial blasts killed 257 people and injured hundreds more.
The court convicted a total 100 persons in this case, of whom, 3 were sentenced to death and 14 others to life imprisonment.
Though the apex court commuted the death sentence of other accused, the death sentence of Yakub Memon, brother of prime accused Tiger Memon, was upheld and he was executed.
Source: The Asian Age, Staff, April 26, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
