07 June 2023 :

Two men who were found guilty and sentenced to death by a POCSO court last year for the gang-rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Bundi district in 2021 were acquitted on June 2, 2023 by Rajasthan High Court, which pointed out that the lower court's verdict was based largely on circumstantial evidence.
Chhote Lal Bheel, 62, and Sultan Bheel, 27, who were awarded death sentence by a POCSO court in Bundi for the crime, were acquitted by a division bench of Justices Pankaj Bhandari and Bhuvan Goyal on June 2.
The bench rejected the death reference of the state government as it found merit in the convicts' contentions that there were many serious lapses in the police investigation and chargesheet.
The minor girl was found murdered on December 23, 2021, in Bundi.
The POCSO court had sentenced the two accused to death on April 28, 2022, considering the crime in the category of the rarest of the rare.
The two convicts had filed criminal appeals in the high court against their conviction and sentence.
Since the duo were poor and unable to afford a lawyer, the district legal services authority had given them the services of a lawyer, Umesh Sharma, to represent them in the high court.
As per Sharma, the police investigation and subsequent conviction and sentencing by the POCSO court were based on circumstantial evidence.
HC noted many gaps in probe by Bundi cops. Sharma informed the HC in his report that while the two accused were arrested on the basis of an investigation involving a dog squad, the dog squad memo and the testimony of the probe team were neither included in the chargesheet nor taken on record. The FIR lodged by the victim's father had mentioned "unknown people" as the perpetrators and did not mention the two accused, said Sharma.
While the victim's body had multiple bite marks, the FSL team's report did not contain a saliva report or teeth size samples matching those of the two accused, said Sharma's report. It also said there was only circumstantial evidence in the case and no eyewitnesses. In the entire investigation, policemen were the only witnesses, and there was no independent witness, it said. Even the circumstantial evidence produced had many missing links, making the prosecution's case "very doubtful," it added.
The minor girl was gang-raped and murdered when she was out to graze goats in the forest near Kala Kuan village. Her head was smashed with a stone, and she was strangled with her dupatta. Acting on a missing report lodged by her relatives, police recovered her body from the forest. A team of cops from ten police stations then conducted a search operation and arrested the two accused within 12 hours.

29 March 2023 :

The Rajasthan high court on 29 March 2023 acquitted four men sentenced to death by a trial court for nine blasts that went off in Jaipur in May 2008, killing 71 people and injuring over 170.
The four were convicted and handed out the death penalty by a sessions court on 8 August 2020, for the nine ammonium nitrate-based bombs that went off within a span of 20 minutes. The explosives, which went off between 7:20pm and 7:45pm on 13 May 2008, were strapped to bicycles and packed with metal splinters or ball bearings to maximize damage in crowded areas.
Mohammad Saif, 32, Mohammad Sarvar, 36, Saif-Ur-Rahman alias Saif-ur-Rahman, 36, and Salman, 34 were convicted for the blasts by a sessions court, ruling that they were guilty of murder, attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means and conspiracy under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
On 29 March, a two-judge bench of justices Pankaj Bhandari and Sameer Jain set aside the conviction.
Syed Saadat Ali, who represented the four men, said the high court ruled that the charges levelled at them by Rajasthan’s anti-terror squad could not be proved and that there was no evidence to convict them. He said one of the four men convicted by the trial court was a juvenile in 2008 but was still prosecuted and convicted.
Additional advocate general Rajesh Mehrishi said the high court acquitted the four due to lack of evidence and lapses in the investigation.
Ali added that the state government has been ordered to take action against police officers indicted in the order. In all, the police initially charged 13 men in their twenties for the blasts.
The eight locations targeted in the nine blasts – Manak Chowk police station, Badi Chaupad, Kotwali police station, Tripoliya Bazar, Chandpole Hanuman temple, National Handloom in Jauhari Bazar, Chhoti Chaupad and Sanganeri Gate Hanuman temple – were within a 2-km radius in Jaipur’s Walled City.
The largest number of people were killed in the blasts near the Hanuman temples. In two blasts outside the Chandpole temple, 25 people were killed, and 17 died outside Sanganeri Gate temple.

14 March 2023 :

Within 100 days, seven persons have been given death penalty in rape cases in Surat, Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi told the state legislature on 11 March 2023.
Speaking on the training of women under the state government’s “Suraksha Setu” programme, Sanghavi said, “Compared to Ahmedabad, such incidents are more in Surat city. In Ahmedabad, these incidents are under control. In order to immediately control these incidents in Surat, this year within 100 days, seven people have been given death penalty. In the entire country, no other state has given justice in so many consecutive cases.”
The minister was replying to a supplementary question asked by Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar during the Question Hour.
“Compared to the last 10 years, crime against women in Gujarat is the lowest this year,” Sanghavi said adding that in the last two years, 14.76 lakh girls have received training under this programme in the state.
Taking about the success cases, the minister narrated how a woman who was previously trained under the Suraksha Setu had defended herself against a sexual assault attempt that took place on a train from Chandigarh to Ahmedabad.
“The woman had stated this in her report filed with the police,” Sanghavi added.

12 April 2023 :

A court in Bihar's Arrah on April 5, 2023 sentenced dreaded gangster Lambu Sharma to death for the 2019 bomb explosion in the district court that killed two people, including the woman tasked with planting it.
Sharma, the mastermind behind the August 20, 2019 bomb blast, was earlier given the same punishment by the same court but appealed to Patna High Court, which stayed the verdict and directed a fresh hearing.
He had hatched the conspiracy along with Akhilesh Upadhyay and 9 others. As per the plan, they gave a high-intensity bomb to a woman named Nagina Devi, who kept it inside the bag and went into the court. However, it exploded before she could plant at a scheduled place, killing her as well as a constable.
The incident had created chaos in the court premises and Sharma and Upadhyay managed to flee from there by taking advantage of it.
Sharma was arrested later by a team of Delhi Police's Special Cell and Upadhyay was also arrested later.
Apart from Sharma, district judge Virendra Chaubey sentenced 7 other accused - Upadhyay, Naim Mian, Ansu Kumar, Shyam Bihari Verma, Chand Mina, Pramod Singh and Rinku Yadav - to life imprisonment. He also imposed a Rs 25,000 fine on them as well.
The court has acquitted former MLA Sunil Pandey, Sanjay Sonar, and Vijay Verma due to absence of proof.

01 March 2023 :

National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court on 28 February 2023 gave death sentences verdict to seven out of eight convicts in the 2017 Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast case. Another convict was given life imprisonment.
The court awarded death sentence to Mohammad Faisal, Gaus Mohammad Khan, Azhar, Atif Muzaffar, Danish, Mir Hussain, Asif Iqbal and life imprisonment to Atif Iraqi.
The court had found the accused guilty under sections 121, 121A, 122, 123 of IPC, sections 17, 18, 18A, 18B, 23, 38 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and 3/25/35 of the Arms Act.
The 2017 Bhopal - Ujjain Passenger train bomb blast was a terrorist attack that occurred on 7 March 2017. The blast occurred in a general coach of the train between 9.30 am and 10 am near Jabdi station in the district.
While pronouncing the sentence, Judge V S Tripathi observed that the case fell in the rarest of rare category and as such the convicts were entitled to the severest punishment. As reported by PTI, the convicts had pleaded the court to show leniency in awarding sentence to them as they had already been in jail for over five years now.
The court, however, refuted their plea and said that the convicts waged war against the country and hence they were not entitled to any leniency.
The court sent the case file to the Allahabad High Court of those who have been awarded death penalty for confirmation of the capital sentence as it is the law that the death penalty can be executed only after confirmation by the high court, as per PTI.
According to special public prosecutors M K Singh and K K Sharma, an FIR in the case was registered on 8 March 2017 with ATS police station in Lucknow.
The ATS had received information that members of banned terror outfit ISIS were planning to conduct blasts at different places in the country. The ATS' Kanpur unit first arrested Mohd Faisal and later on other accused were nabbed.
The state counsel said that the accused had conducted a test blast at Ganga Ghat in Unnao. In the probe, it also came out that the accused had planted a bomb on Kanpur-Unnao railway track. They had also planted bombs at different places during Dussehra. The accused wanted to go to Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Mumbai via Pakistan and Afghanistan to commit act of terrorism, according to the probe findings.
The charge sheet was filed in the case on 31 August 2017. In the charge sheet, one more accused, Saifullah, was named but he was killed in an encounter in Dubagga area of Lucknow. 

07 February 2023 :

A special court in Lucknow on 30 January 2023 awarded the death penalty to a man who was booked for waging war against the government after he assaulted a Uttar Pradesh armed police force's jawan at the Gorakhnath temple.
Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi, special judge of the ATS court, also imposed a fine of ₹ 44,000 on Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi.
According to an FIR lodged at the Gorakhnath police station on 4 April 2022 on the basis of a complaint from Vinay Kumar Mishra, Abbasi, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduate, tried to forcibly enter the Gorakhnath temple premises the day before and attacked the security personnel deployed there with a sickle, injuring two Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) constables.
He was overpowered by the security personnel, and subsequently arrested.
The investigation was conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).
He had also tried to snatch a rifle.
While being arrested, he was chanting religious slogans and was found in possession of a book in Urdu. He was said to have been connected with a terror outfit.
The court had earlier convicted him under section 121 (waging or abetting war against the government of India), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of his public functions), 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was also booked for offences under the Arms Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
The court heard his counsel on the quantum of sentence and awarded him capital sentence.

15 November 2023 :

18 October 2023 :

The Delhi high court on October 12, 2023 commuted Ariz Khan's death penalty to a life sentence, a decision stemming from his conviction in the high-profile 2008 Batla House encounter.
The Batla House encounter case was an armed Delhi Police operation to arrest terrorists of the Indian terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, hiding in a flat in the Batla House area of Jamia Nagar, Okhla, on 19 September 2008.
This incident led to the tragic loss of life of the distinguished Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.
A Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma upheld the March 2021 judgment of the trial court convicting Khan of the police officer’s killing, but declined to confirm the capital punishment, saying that there was “nothing on record to attribute the fatal shot responsible for the death of the late Inspector to any particular accused”.
Noting that the case does not fall under the category of a ‘rarest of rare case’, the court said rigorous imprisonment for life would be an appropriate sentence for Khan.
In August, the bench had reserved its judgment on this matter, following the completion of arguments from both the convict's lawyers and the state's legal representatives.
Additionally, two terrorists were fatally wounded in the same encounter. This incident occurred just days after a series of coordinated bomb explosions rocked the nation's capital, resulting in the tragic loss of 39 lives and causing injuries to 159 individuals. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma conducted the raid in search of the terrorists who were believed to be responsible for the bombings.
On March 8, 2021, the trial court issued a verdict, finding Ariz Khan guilty. The court established that it had been conclusively proven that Khan, along with his associates, was responsible for the murder of the police officer and had fired gunshots at him. The court classified this offense as being in the "rarest of the rare" category, justifying the imposition of the most severe punishment, which was the death penalty, where he would be "hanged by the neck" until death.
On March 15, 2021, the court handed down the death penalty to Ariz Khan and additionally imposed a fine of Rs 11 lakh on him. The court specifically directed that Rs 10 lakh of this fine should be promptly transferred to the family members of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma. Following this, the high court received a reference regarding the confirmation of Ariz Khan's death sentence.

12 October 2023 :

A Kolkata high court division bench on October 6, 2023 set aside the death sentences earlier ordered by a sessions court to three of the six convicts in the 2013 gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old college student at Kamduni village in North 24 Parganas district, a crime that triggered an uproar in West Bengal and bore strong resemblance to the 2012 Nirbhaya incident in Delhi.
The bench comprising justice Joymalya Bagchi and justice Ajay Kumar Gupta turned the death sentences faced by Saiful Ali and Ansar Ali into life imprisonment and acquitted Amin Ali, who, too, faced death sentence, citing lack of evidence, lawyer Phiroze Edulji, who represented the convicts, said.
In the order, a copy of which was seen by HT, the judges said : “I am of the opinion the trial court erred in awarding death penalty with reference to the gravity of the offence alone. State has failed to prove conspiracy and prior concert in the crime beyond reasonable doubt. It has also not led evidence to rebut the possibility of reformation and rehabilitation.”
They added: “On the other hand, conduct of the appellants in the correctional home is satisfactory and other unrebutted materials before this court gives rise to a reasonable belief that there is high possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the appellants. Alternative punishment of life imprisonment for the remainder of natural life is a more humane substitute that adequately addresses societal concerns of recidivism.”
Three other convicts – Sheikh Imanul Islam, Aminur Islam and Bhola Naskar - who were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by the sessions court, were released by the division bench against bail bond of ₹10,000 each as they had already served the period behind bars, Edulji said.
All the sentences were pronounced in January 2016 by additional district and sessions judge Sanchita Sarkar who, while passing her verdict, described the Kamduni crime as “rarest of the rare.”
These were the first death sentences passed in a rape case in West Bengal after the then President of India Pranab Mukherjee promulgated the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 that the Centre introduced in view of the Nirbhaya incident.
“It is a historic verdict. The bench set aside all three death sentences and Amin Ali was acquitted as there was no evidence against him, according to the honourable judges,” said Edulji.
“Two more accused persons, Rafiqul Islam and Noor Ali, were acquitted in 2016 by the lower court. The state government challenged that acquittal order but the bench upheld it as well,” Edulji added.
On June 7, 2013, the victim, who was a second-year under-graduate student, was returning to her home at Kamduni, around 25 km to the north of Kolkata, after appearing for her college exams. The woman was walking alone from the railway station when she was abducted and dragged to a desolate farm.
Her mutilated body, with the private parts ripped apart, was found by local people the next morning, police and forensic reports said in 2013.
Days after the crime triggered a people’s movement in Kolkata and the districts, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government handed over the case to the criminal investigation department (CID).
The CID arrested nine people of whom Rafiqul Islam and Noor Ali were acquitted due to lack of evidence and Gopal Naskar died during trial.
After the crime, two friends of the victim, Mousumi Koyal and Tumpa Koyal, became the faces of a movement that Bengal did not witness in recent history. They took members of the victim’s family to Delhi and met the President to seek justice. Citizens took to the streets in Kolkata and the districts. A Bengali movie based on the incident became popular.
Mousumi and Tumpa Koyal broke down at the high court premises on Friday afternoon after the bench passed the order.
While lawyers raised questioned on the charge sheet filed by CID, Mousumi Koyal said, “The state government failed to ensure justice. We will not accept this.”
“We will move the Supreme Court challenging this order,” said the victim’s brother.
The court order drew reactions from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said: “The verdict is extremely disappointing. The brutality at Kamduni exceeded what we saw in the Nirbhaya case. People wanted capital punishment. After these convicts are released, residents of Kamduni will live in fear. Women will never feel secure on those roads. The CID investigation had flaws. It was done to shield the accused.”
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “A political party cannot comment on a court’s decision.”
No police officer was willing to speak on the court order.

26 September 2023 :

The Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench, has set aside the death sentence of a man who was convicted of rape and murder of four-year-old girl and has commuted it to the life imprisonment, Verdictum website reported on August 16, 2023. 
The Court said that the case did not fall within the ambit of rarest of rare case.  
A death sentence was awarded to the aforesaid man by a Special Judge, POCSO Court for the offences under Sections 363, 302, and 201 of IPC (Indian Penal Code) and Section 5(M)/6 of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, in alternate Section 376(AB) of IPC and Section 84 of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as the JJ Act).  
A Division Bench comprising Justice Pankaj Bhandari and Justice Bhuwan Goyal held, “Considering the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the present case and in the light of the law laid down by the Apex court, in our view, this case does not fall within the category of ‘rarest of rare case’ and therefore, we commute the death penalty to that of life imprisonment, which shall extend to the full natural life of the appellant but subject to any remission or commutation at the instance of the government for good and sufficient reasons.”
The Bench relied upon the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab (1980) 2 SCC 684 wherein it was held that life imprisonment is the Rule and Death Sentence is an exception. Advocate Mahendra Kumar appeared for the accused Suresh Kumar.  
G.A. Javed Choudhary appeared for the State, and Advocate Fahad Hasan appeared for the complainant.
A missing person report was filed by the father of the missing girl, a child aged about four and a half years, to the effect that the child went missing from Aguna Mohalla, Azad Chauk and the dead body of the missing child was recovered from a pond. It was found that she was raped and drowned in the pond. The Police sprang into action and on the basis of informer’s feedback, arrested the accused from the village.
The Court stated that the offence had been committed with a young girl of four-and-a-half-year-old and further observed that the mitigating circumstances in the present case were: the age of the accused was 23 years at the time of the alleged offence; the accused-appellant had a wife and a girl child of one year old at the time of the alleged incident; the accused did not have any criminal antecedents; the murder was not pre-meditated; his behaviour in custody was not uncomplimentary and so, it could not be said that he would be a menace to the society.  

27 June 2023 :

The Delhi High Court on June 26, 2023 commuted the death sentence awarded earlier to a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old child in the year 2009.
A division bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal modified the trial court order that had sentenced him to death.
The bench held that the convict, Jeevak Nagpal, would have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life with no remission till 20 years.
The Court commuted the death sentence on the ground that the case did not fall in the category of the ‘rarest of rare cases’. The reformation of the convict was still possible in this case, the Court opined.
“It is not a case where reformation of the appellant is not possible and accordingly, this Court is of the considered view that sentence of imprisonment of life with no remission till 20 years would be the appropriate sentence. The sentence of the appellant is thus modified to rigorous imprisonment for life with no remission till 20 years and to pay a fine of ₹1 lakh, in default whereof, to undergo simple imprisonment for six months for offence punishable under Section 302 IPC,” the Court ordered.
The High Court was dealing with a reference seeking the confirmation of the death sentence awarded to Nagpal by a trial court. It was also adjudicating on an appeal filed by the convict challenging his conviction and sentence.
Nagpal was convicted for kidnapping and murdering his 12-year-old neighbour. It was stated that Nagpal kidnapped the child on March 18, 2009, and sent messages to the child’s father demanding ransom.
The Court was told that he eventually murdered the child using the jack handle of his car and by smothering. The body of the deceased child was then thrown in a dry drain. Nagpal was barely 21 years of age at the time of the murder.
After considering the case, the Court rejected Nagpal’s appeal against his conviction.
While deciding on the reference, the Court said that the evidence on record would suggest that the murder was not pre-planned as Nagpal was not armed with any weapon.
“Though causing death of someone in itself is perversity, however causing death by smothering and inflicting injuries by jack handle though opined to be consistent with intense torture, cannot be held to be a diabolic or seriously perverse manner of committing murder so as to shock the collective conscience of the society and fall in the category of rarest of rare cases," the judgment stated.
The Court, therefore, modified the sentence imposed on Nagpal for the offence of murder. However, it said that the sentences awarded for offences punishable under Sections 364A, 201 and 506 IPC are not modified and will remain the same.
Advocates Bharat Dubey, Shubhlaxmi Dubey, Sonia Dubey and Tanya Kapoor appeared for Jeevak Nagpal.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Prithu Garg appeared for the State.
Advocates Prashant Diwan, Kushika Chachhra and Mayank Verma appeared for the complainant.

02 May 2023 :

India’s Supreme Court on April 28, 2023 commuted the death sentence of a man to life sentence, namely Digambar who murdered his sister along with her lover. The court said that as the act of the accused did not fall under the rarest of the rare case, death sentence would be eligible for commutation.
Observing that Digambar did not have any criminal antecedents, a three-judge Bench of Justice B.R Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath, and Justice Sanjay Karol held, “...Digambar, who has been sentenced to capital punishment, was a young boy of about 25 years at the time of the incident. The medical evidence would further reveal that the appellants have not acted in a brutal manner, inasmuch as there is only a single injury inflicted on both the deceased. As such, we find that the present case cannot be considered to be the ‘rarest of rare’ case”.
The appellant, Digambar was awarded the death sentence while his co-appellant, Mohan, was punished with life imprisonment by a Sessions Court in 2019, which was confirmed by the Bombay High Court in 2021.
While commuting the death sentence of Digambar, the court also took note of a report of the Probation Officer, Nanded as well as the Superintendent, of Nashik Road Central Prison which showed that Digambar had been found to be well-behaved, helping, and a person with leadership qualities.
“He is not a person with the criminal mindset and criminal records”, the bench said.
However, the bench upheld Digambar and Mohan's convictions under Sections 201 (punishment for causing the disappearance of evidence of an offence), Section 302 (punishment for murder), and Section 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In 2017, Digambar used a sickle to murder his sister and her lover with the help of Mohan. He then hurried to the Bhokar Police Station and filed a first information report detailing his involvement in the crime.
Digambar and Mohan appealed their convictions to the Supreme Court, primarily on the grounds that Digambar's extrajudicial confession was the only evidence used to support them.
While refusing to overturn the Bombay High Court’s decision, the bench opined, “Though the extra-judicial confession of the accused- Digambar cannot be taken into consideration, however, his conduct of going to the Police Station and surrendering before the Police can certainly be taken into consideration in view of Section 8 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872”.
The bench further stated that the prosecution had proven that the deceased and the accused left the home of the public witness together shortly before the deceased people passed away and held “As such, the burden to show as to what happened after leaving the house would shift on the accused in view of Section 106 [(burden of proving fact, especially within knowledge)] of the Indian Evidence Act. It is to be noted that what transpired after the accused left along with the deceased, is only within the knowledge of the accused. However, the accused persons have utterly failed to discharge the said burden”.
Conclusively, the court dismissed the appeal filed by co-appellant, Mohan and partly allowed the appeal filed by Digambar. “Though the conviction of the appellant-Digambar under Section 302 IPC is maintained, the sentence of capital punishment is commuted to life imprisonment”, it held.

22 March 2023 :

The Supreme Court on March 21, 2023 commuted the death sentence of a man, who had kidnapped and killed a seven-year-old boy in Tamil Nadu in 2009, to 20-year imprisonment, saying there was “possibility of reformation” even though he has committed a ghastly crime.
Observing that there was no reason to doubt the guilt of the man, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud held that the man would undergo life imprisonment for not less than 20 years without reprieve or remission.
The commutation of the death sentence came after taking note of the arguments that hearing on the sentence has not been conducted separately in the trial court and mitigating circumstances have not been considered in the appellate courts before awarding the capital punishment.
The top court’s judgement came on a review plea filed by Sundar alias Sundarrajan who picked up the victim while he was returning from school in the school van on July 27, 2009.
On the same night, the victim’s mother received a call on her mobile phone from Sundar, demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh for his release.
On July 30, 2009, the police raided Sundar’s house and arrested him along with a co-accused who was later acquitted. He confessed to strangling the boy, putting his body in a gunny bag and throwing it in the Meerankulam tank.
The Madras High Court had on September 30, 2010, confirmed the conviction and the award of the death sentence, which was upheld by the top court on February 5, 2013.
Sundar had filed a plea before the top court in 2013 seeking a review of his conviction for the offence of murder and the award of death sentence on the basis of the decision of a Constitution Bench in Mohd. Arif vs Registrar, Supreme Court of India.
The Constitution Bench had held that review petitions arising from conviction and the imposition of the sentence of death must be heard in open court and cannot be disposed of by circulation.
In its 51-page verdict, the apex court took note of the man’s submission that he could not communicate mitigating circumstances bearing on his sentencing decision to the lawyer and his relatives, who being poor and uneducated, could not properly contest the case for him.
The court said on the basis of these details, it cannot be said that there is no possibility of reformation even though the petitioner has committed a ghastly crime.
“We must consider several mitigating factors: the petitioner has no prior antecedents, was 23 years old when he committed the crime and has been in prison since 2009 where his conduct has been satisfactory, except for the attempt to escape prison in 2013.
“The petitioner is suffering from a case of systemic hypertension and has attempted to acquire some basic education in the form of a diploma in food catering. The acquisition of a vocation in jail has an important bearing on his ability to lead a gainful life,” the bench said.
The top court said even though the crime committed by the man is unquestionably grave and unpardonable, it is not appropriate to affirm the death sentence that was awarded to him.
“As we have discussed, the ‘rarest of rare’ doctrine requires that the death sentence not be imposed only by taking into account the grave nature of crime but only if there is no possibility of reformation in a criminal.
“Considering the facts of the instant case, we are of the considered view that the petitioner must undergo life imprisonment for not less than 20 years without remission of sentence,” the bench, also comprising Justices Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha, said.
It also issued a notice to the inspector of police, Kammapuram police station in Cuddalore district as to why action should not be taken in pursuance to the affidavit filed in court concealing the conduct of the petitioner.
Accordingly, the Registry is directed to register the matter as a suo motu proceeding for contempt of court, the bench said.
The top court said that it is the duty of the court to inquire into mitigating circumstances as well as to foreclose the possibility of reformation and rehabilitation before imposing the death penalty.
“The state must equally place all material and circumstances on the record bearing on the probability of reform. Many such materials and aspects are within the knowledge of the state which has had custody of the accused both before and after the conviction.
“Moreover, the court cannot be an indifferent bystander in the process. The process and powers of the court may be utilised to ensure that such material is made available to it to form a just sentencing decision bearing on the probability of reform,” the bench said.

01 February 2023 :

The Calcutta High Court on 31 January 2023 commuted the death sentence of two persons, convicted of abduction, rape, and murder of a minor girl at Balagarh in West Bengal's Hooghly district to imprisonment for life without remission till the end of their natural life.
The court observed that the state has failed to place any material to establish that the appellants cannot be reformed and are beyond scope of rehabilitation.
A division bench comprising justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi ordered the commutation of their death sentence awarded by a sessions court in the district capital of Chinsurah in January 2020, to a life term.
"Keeping in view the brutality of the offence committed, it would be appropriate that, the appellants be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of remission till the end of their natural life," the bench said in its judgment.
It was hearing a mandatory death reference for confirmation of the sessions court's order that awarded the death penalty to the two - Gourab Mondal and Kaushik Malik, and also an appeal by them.
A third accused, who was 17 years old at the time of the commission of offence in December 2014, was tried before a juvenile court.
The three had abducted the class VI student when she was heading for a private tuition class from her home in Balagarh on the evening of 12 December 2014.
After a futile search by her parents that night, they received a ransom call from the culprits for Rs 30 lakhs, which they said they were unable to pay to owe to their financial condition.
The police tracked down and arrested the trio from the location of the phone from which the ransom call was made.
As per records, they admitted to abducting the girl, killing her, and burying her body beside River Hooghly at Jirat, which is near Balagarh, after raping her and then chopping off her legs.

30 December 2023 :

A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Rajasthan’s Pali district awarded the death penalty to a 22-year-old accused in a case involving rape and double murder, Hindustan Times reported on December 13, 2023.
Additionally, a fine of Rs.5 lakh rupees has been imposed on the accused.
“The accused committed an egregious crime, deserving the death penalty,” POCSO court judge Anwar Ahmed Chauhan stated during the verdict.
Public prosecutor Khimaram Patel stated that the accused, identified as Arjun Singh, was sentenced after pleading guilty. According to Patel, on May 1, 2023, the accused had raped a 10-year-old girl and subsequently murdered her. He also murdered her 13-year-old brother of the minor girl.
While giving the verdict, special judge Chauhan said that the accused had crossed the height of the crime.
“Killing 10 and 13-year-old minors and raping a 10-year-old-girl is a very serious crime,” he said, adding “...The lives of both the deceased had not even begun and the accused brutally murdered them. Such a criminal must get the death penalty.”
According to the public prosecutor, the dead bodies of the minor siblings were found in the forest. Both had gone to graze goats and did not return home till late evening.
A missing complaint was filed, following which the police and family members began searching for them and found their bodies near a village in Pali district, Patel said.

21 November 2023 :

09 November 2023 :

The Special POCSO Court on November 7, 2023 awarded death sentence to a 65-year-old man accused of rape and murder in Uttar Pradesh.
Additional district and sessions judge Shyam Mohan Jaiswal, who holds the charge of POCSO Court, awarded capital punishment to one Kedar Nath Rathore, 65, for raping and thereafter gagging a 10-year old minor to death.
Passing the order, the court stated that it could not overlook the unbearable pain and trauma which the minor girl must have undergone at the time of the incident. The court would fail in discharging its duty if it did not award maximum punishment to the accused, observed the court.
The victim went missing from outside her house in Aliganj on March 16, 2016 and the next day, her father lodged an FIR at the Aliganj police station.
Cops recovered the victim’s body dumped near Shyam Satsang Bhawan, Mahanagar, later in the day. Kedar Nath Rathore, the victim’s neighbour, was arrested from the state capital when he was trying to flee.
“Kedar Nath Rathore was arrested on the basis of neighbours’ statements who had spotted the girl with him for the last time in the evening on March 16, 2016,” said Mukesh Tripathi, district government counsel (criminal).
Tripathi and advocate Shashi Pathak had represented the state government in court during the trial of the case.
“The post mortem examination report of the girl pointed out seven injuries on her body. The accused had gagged the girl to death after raping her when she was writhing in pain,” added Tripathi.
“The forensic science laboratory report had revealed the presence of male sperm on the clothes of the victim. Involvement of the accused was established beyond any doubt in the court,” asserted Tripathi.
The court also got the accused examined by a psychiatrist. “The psychiatrist ruled out any psychological disorder in the accused. This also helped the court in awarding death penalty to the accused,” said Tripathi.

23 October 2023 :

A British mother has been sentenced to death in India after she brutally murdered her husband in front of their nine-year-old son with the help of her lover, Daily Mail reported on October 17, 2023.
Ramandeep Kaur Mann, 38, from Derby, was found guilty of murdering her husband Sukhjit Singh, 34, while they were on holiday at his mother's house in India in 2016. 
Mr Singh, a devout Sikh and father-of-two from Derby, was found in bed with his throat slit on September 2, 2016 — murdered in front of his terrified son, who was nine years old at the time.
Their son told the court during the trial that he had been sleeping in the bed next to his father when he was awoken to the sight of his mother smothering Mr Singh with a pillow. 
Her lover, Mr Singh's childhood friend Gurpreet Singh, then hit the father-of-two on the head with a hammer before Ramandeep slit his throat.  
Now, seven years on, Ramandeep has been found guilty of her husband's murder and been sentenced to death by hanging by an Indian court, reports NDTV. 
Gurpreet Singh was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a fine of 10,000 rupees (£98.75). 
Mr Singh, his wife and their two children travelled to his mother's house in Banda, south east of Delhi, on July 28, 2016 to see relatives and meet up with Gurpreet Singh, who had attended school with Mr Singh. 
Ramandeep had reportedly told police that her husband refused to give her a divorce. The couple had been married since 2005. 
On the day of the murder, Ramandeep poisoned the entire family, including her seven-year-old son, after she made a pot of dahl for them. But she didn't realise that her other son, who was nine at the time, hadn't touched the dahl that night. 
This meant that her eldest son witnessed his mother murdering his father with the help of Gurpreet Singh, who had spent days with the family on trips out. 
Government lawyer Shree Pal Verma said the couple's eldest son later testified in court during his mother's murder trial. 
'He told the court that he was sleeping with his father when his mother smothered her husband with a pillow,' Verma said. 
'Then, Gurpreet hit Mr Singh with a hammer on his head. After that, Gurpreet took out a knife from his pocket and gave it to Ramandeep, who slit the throat of Mr Singh.' 

19 October 2023 :

A court in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh on October 18, 2023 sentenced three persons to death for killing three children, aged between seven and nine, more than four years ago.
The convicts were Bilal, Imran and Salman.
Additional sessions judge Manu Kalia sentenced them to death for killing Aliba (7), Asma (9) and Abdul Rehman (8) in the Faislabad area of Bulandshahr, government counsel Vijay Kumar Sharma said.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹ 1.72 lakh on each of the convicts.
According to the prosecution, the convicts were angry with Mahe Alam after he refused them entry to an iftar party and killed his daughter Aliba, niece Asma and nephew Abdul Rehman in May 2019.

11 October 2023 :

The Special Court of the Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track), Prashant Rana, awarded on October 7, 2023 death penalty in Haryana State to a 42-year-old man for raping his minor daughter for four years and impregnating her.
The sexual assault led the victim to deliver a baby in January 2021. A case under Sections 323, 354-A 376, 506 of the IPC and Sections 6 and 10 of the POCSO Act was registered in this regard.
“The convict shall be hanged by neck till he is dead, subject to the confirmation of the sentence by the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana,” says the sentence delivered by the court on October 7.
The accused was pronounced the sentence after his conviction following the prosecution, which ran for about three years. The court has also ordered the release of compensation of Rs 10.5 lakh for the victim. This will be paid by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Palwal, out of the Women Victims Compensation Fund, in the bank account of the victim, as per rules, at the earliest, it is announced.
According to the FIR lodged on October 2, 2020, on the statement of the victim, her father began raping her soon after the death of her mother, when she was less than 12 years old. She gave birth to a baby at an age of about 16 years .
“As the case belongs to the category of the rarest of the rare,’’ the court hereby sentences the accused convicted to the crime to death for the offence punishable under Section 6 of The POCSO Act, along with a fine of Rs10,000,” says the order. An additional fine of Rs 5,000 has also been imposed under Section 506 of the IPC.
The DLSA has been directed to release the maximum compensation of Rs 10.5 lakh to the victim who is aged around 18 years and nine months at present. While Rs 3 lakh has already been granted as an interim compensation, the remaining Rs 7.5 lakh should be disbursed at the earliest, says the order.

04 October 2023 :

A special POCSO court in Tripura on October 3, 2023 convicted two persons and sentenced them to death for raping and murdering a minor girl four years ago.
Special judge Angshuman Debbarma sentenced Saurabh Chandranath (19) and Dibakar Das (20) to death while also slapping a fine of Rs.5,000 each, said public prosecutor Sudarshan Sharma.
The six-year-old girl had gone missing on 17 May 2019, following which her mother lodged a complaint at Dharam Nagar police station. Police recovered the body of the child the next day from Haflong tea estate, about a few kilometres from her residence.
An investigation was taken up during which the police arrested two suspects, both neighbours, who confessed to kidnapping, raping, and later murdering the minor girl.
The court meticulously recorded the statements of 41 witnesses throughout the proceedings.
Sub-inspector Sanchita Raha filed a charge sheet on November 28, 2019, holding the two responsible for the rape and murder of the minor girl.
Both the accused were charged under Sections 363, 376, 302, and 201 of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO).

27 September 2023 :

A Chittoor court, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, on August 22, 2023 awarded death penalty to a middle-aged man identified as Syed Moulali on charges of killing his live-in partner and her 65-year-old mother.  
According to Madanapalle police, Moulali was in a live-in relationship with one Sarala of Govindavaripalle in Tamballapalle mandal of Annamayya district.  
Sarala was a widow and she lived with her mother and three minor daughters.  
Moulali shifted them all to his farmhouse near Yetigadda Thanda.  
With time, he turned suspicious that Sarala was having an affair.  
On September 29, 2020, Moulali killed Sarala.  
A month later, when Sarala's mother started questioning Moulali about her missing daughter's whereabouts, he strangulated her too. Later, Moulali shifted Sarala's three minor daughters to Karnataka and started sexually abusing them.  
Tamballapalle Police booked a case and carried out inquiry through conviction-based policing in 2022. They got a verdict of death sentence from the court in just 20 months. 
Under the conviction-based policing methodology, each unit officer in their jurisdiction (SP/CP) is assigned at least five major cases (given prior to crime against women). The unit officer will review the trials in court and make sure they are conducted without any delay. The unit officer will also ensure that no criminal escapes from the crime he/she committed. 
The main aim behind this is that a unit officer will help avoid any kind of threat to the victims and ensure quick punishment for the criminal. The data on convictions is regularly updated to the director general of police (DGP) K.V Rajendranath Reddy. Further, finding that the court monitoring system implemented to resolve disputes in the court is only limited to issuing notices related to the cases, the DGP asked the officials to strengthen the system. He asked the officers to ensure the cases are not delayed and the offenders are punished. 

18 September 2023 :

A man was sentenced to death by a court in Odisha’s Sambalpur district on August 9, 2023 in a triple murder case.
His son was also found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime committed at Lapada village under Mahulpali area of Sambalpur district in 2020.
Pronouncing the verdict in the sensational case, the court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Kuchinda, Rajkishore Lenka awarded death penalty for the main accused, Navin Dehury.
Navin’s son Hemanand was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.
The Judge also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on Hemanand.
As per the prosecution, Navin had hacked three members of a family to death on October 21, 2020 over land related disputes at Lapada village. The deceased were Giridhari Sahu, his wife Savitri Sahu and mother-in-law Pirobati. Navin’s son Hemanand was found to have assisted him in the crime.
The two had been arrested by Mahulpali police.
The court delivered the verdict on the basis of statements of 20 witnesses, scientific information and circumstantial evidence, according to government advocate R K Nayak.

02 October 2023 :

An NIA Special Court in Lucknow on September 14, 2023 awarded death penalty to Atif Muzaffar and Mohammed Faisal Khan who were held guilty of murdering retired school principal Ram Babu Shukla in Kanpur with the motive of advancing their ISIS agenda by instilling fear and terror among the people.
The court charged the two guilty under the sections of IPC 302 (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), along with sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on the two convicts. The judgment was announced by Special Judge NIA Court Dinesh Kumar Mishra.
On October 24, 2016, Ram Babu Shukla, who retired as a principal of Swami Atmaprakash Brahmchari Junior High School in Kanpur, was murdered while he was returning home on his bicycle.
He was attacked by the accused near village Pyondi in Kanpur. The case was handed over to the NIA in November 2017.
The anti-terror agency had first filed a charge sheet against the two accused on July 12, 2018 after elaborate investigations, which revealed that the accused had been radicalized by the ISIS ideology and were out to kill people whom they believed to be disbelievers.
A third accused, Mohammad Saifulla, had died in Lucknow during the exchange of fire with the Anti-Terrorist Squad, March 7, 2017.

07 August 2023 :

A court in Gujarat’s Surat city on August 2, 2023 awarded death sentence to a 23-year-old man for the rape and murder of a two-year-old girl in February.
Additional sessions judge Shakuntala Solanki handed down the capital punishment to accused Yusuf Ismail and also asked the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the victim.
Ismail was found guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape), and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The prosecution had sought death penalty for the accused, claiming that it was a `rarest of rare’ case
The incident took place at Kapletha village near Sachin industrial area of Surat.
Ismail was a friend of the victim’s father.
On February 27, Ismail took the girl to a nearby shop, saying he would buy her some snacks. He raped the child and killed her using a knife.
He then fled from the spot dumping the body in an open field but was nabbed by police the next day. 

29 June 2023 :

A local court on June 28, 2023 awarded the death sentence to a man for raping and killing an eight-year-old girl in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh in March this year.
Special judge under the POCSO Act Manraj Singh awarded the death sentence to Gautam Singh Dohre.
Superintendent of Police Charu Nigam said Dohre raped the minor girl and strangulated her to death on March 25. The girl was grazing her goat near her house when Dohre lured her away by offering her biscuit.
Dohre and the girl belonged to the same village in the Ayana police station area. Later, he was arrested.
Her body was later recovered on the information provided by Dohre.
The charge sheet in the case was filed within eight days of the incident and the court on Wednesday convicted the accused and sentenced him to death, the police officer said.
The additional director general of police of Kanpur has rewarded the police team with an amount of Rs 25,000 for their quick action in the case as the trial was completed within three months after they arrested the accused, the SP added.

13 June 2023 :

The man who killed five people including three minor children has been given a death sentence by a division bench of the Dharwad Bench of the High Court of Karnataka, Outlook India reported on June 10, 2023.
According to the reports by PTI, the HC has also issued several directions to the prosecution in cases where it is seeking the death penalty.
The bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj and Justice G Basavaraja said, "The atrocity of the crime resulting in five deaths including 3 children below 10 years of age and the brutality with which the same has been committed, leaves us no option but to confirm the order of death sentence passed by the trial court, which we do with a heavy heart. This in our considered opinion qualifies the test of rarest of rare cases requiring the award of death penalty," as they disposed of two petitions filed by the convict and the State. 
The HC had reserved the judgement on the petitions after completing the hearing on November 22, 2022. But it had sought several pieces of information including certain records and reports. 
These records, the court said were necessary to issue directions to be followed in all cases where the prosecution seeks for award of the death penalty.
The accused Byluru Thippaiah, a labourer from Kenchanagudda Halli in Kampli, Hosapete, Ballari, suspected his wife was having an affair which led to quarrels.
They had four children, and Thippaiah declared that only one of them was born to him. On February 25, 2017, he attacked his wife, Pakkeeramma with a chopper.
He also attacked his sister-in-law Gangamma and his children Pavithra, Nagaraj and Rajappa. All five succumbed to their injuries. 
The Sessions Court at Ballari which conducted the trial against him, examined 36 witnesses and 51 material objects before finding him guilty and awarded the death sentence on December 3, 2019, under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and directed him "to be hung till death."

01 June 2023 :

A special court in Mathura, dealing with cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on May 29, 2023 sentenced a man to death for raping and killing a 9-year-old boy. The relatives of the deceased boy told India Today that the court gave its verdict just 15 days after the charge sheet was filed.
The incident occurred on April 8 this year. The child had gone to the mosque to offer Namaz in the evening. When he did not return home, his family members got worried. After a lot of searching, the father reported the matter to the police. The police immediately started checking the CCTV cameras in the vicinity.
In the CCTV footage, the police saw the boy going with Saif, who worked for the boy's father. When questioned by the police, Saif confessed to the crime.
The body of the child was recovered from near a drain, 500 meters away from the house. Saif told the police that he first sodomised the boy and then, out of fear, strangled him to death. He had thrown the boy's body near the drain.
The case was heard in the court of Special Judge, POCSO Act, Ram Kishore Yadav. The charges against the accused were proven on May 26.
On May 29, the court sentenced the accused Saif to death and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Prosecutor Alka Upamanyu said that the convict had accepted his crime before the trial.
There were a total of 14 witnesses in the case. The final arguments took place on May 22 and on May 26, the accused was found guilty of all the charges.
The parents of the deceased boy told India Today that while they were sure of getting justice in the case, they were surprised at how quickly it was delivered.

14 May 2023 :

A court in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur has sentenced three men to death for killing a couple living next door in the city in 2021, terming the offence as "rarest of the rare". Additional sessions court judge Anil Choudhary sentenced the trio to death on April 27, 2023.
The court ordered that the convicts be "hanged till death' and said their crime fell in the category of rarest of the rare, assistant district public prosecution officer and media in-charge Bhagwat Uikey told PTI.
The court sentenced the three men - Ravi Kushwah, Raja Kushwah and Vinay Kushwah - to double death penalty after holding them guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 (murder) for killing Pushparaj Kushwah and his wife Neelam, he added.
The trio stabbed the couple on June 14, 2021 when the latter came to the rescue of their kin. The injured husband-wife duo was rushed to a hospital where they died during treatment, Uikey said.
As per the details of the case, the trio barged into the house of Golu, Pushparaj's brother, and stabbed him, his wife and their five-year-old son Pratik over a dispute. All of them lived in Gorakhpur locality of Jabalpur. When Pushparaj and his wife came to the rescue of Golu and his family, the accused stabbed the couple to death. The court also convicted the trio under IPC sections 450 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment for life), section 307 (attempt to murder), section 34 (common intention), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and others, Uikey said, adding that the sentences on these counts will run concurrently.

03 May 2023 :

An SC/ST court in Dholpur district on April 25, 2023 sentenced an 82- year-old man in a 15-year-old case of shooting four MGNREGS workers to death.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the convict, Kirti Ram.
The four victims worked under the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme).
The SC/ST Act, 1989, is an Act to prevent the commission of offences of Atrocities against the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
The incident took place at around 9.30am on July 9, 2008, when road construction work under NREGA was going on at Dhaundhe Ka Pura village under Sadar police station of Dholpur district, said special public prosecutor Mahir Hasan Rizvi.
Kirti Ram and his accomplices fired at the people working at the site, and four workers died, he added. After considering the evidence, special judge Narendra Meena of the SC/ST court found Kirti Ram guilty of the four murders and issued the death sentence on April 25.
The three other accused are currently lodged in jail, and their trial is going on in the court while seven accused in the case are absconding after getting bail.
Rizvi said that Jaipal, the son of one of the victims, Ratanlal Jatav, a resident of Dhaundhe Ka Pura village of Bari sub-division of the district, had lodged a complaint at Bari police station about the firing and the deaths.
Jaipal said that Ratanlal, Natthilal, Ramswaroop, Bhanwar Lal and Pappu had come to work at the site in the village under MNREGS.
Around 9.30am, Kirti Ram's son Jalim Gurjar, Suresh Gurjar, Vikram, Chandrabhan alias Atta, Puran, Bhagwan Singh, Raju, Guddu, Kalla, Suresh Thakur and Bachchu Singh reached there armed with weapons, he said. "All the accused started quarrelling with the victims as soon as they reached there and started firing with their illegal weapons while abusing them.
Nattilal, Ratanlal, Ramswaroop and Ramveer died on the spot in the firing.
Police started the investigation by registering a case and arrested eleven accused," said Rizvi.

17 April 2023 :

A court in Maharashtra's Nagpur on April 15, 2023 sentenced a man to death for killing five members of his family over a property dispute.
Additional sessions judge R S Pawaskar convicted the accused Vivek Gulab Palatkar (35) of charges under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to death.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹ 50,000 on him.
As per the case details, the incident took place in June 2018 when Palatkar had come to his sister's house in Nandanavan area of the city, and attacked her, his four-year-old son, niece, brother-in-law Kamlakar Motiram Pawankar and Kamlakar's mother.
The accused attacked the victims with sharp and heavy objects while they were asleep and killed them.
Palatkar fled the scene and was apprehended by the police almost 15 days after the murders, it was stated.

31 January 2023 :

A 22-year-old man was sentenced to death on 30 January 2023 by a special court for Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases in Vapi of Valsad district (Gujarat) for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in February 2020.
The minor was found hanging at her home and the accused attempted to stage a scene of a suicide. However, a postmortem and police investigation revealed that the girl had been sexually assaulted, sodomised and then strangled.
The court of special judge K J Modi convicted and sentenced Pradip Rajesh alias Rajendra alias Rameshwar Gupta, a labourer and native of Bihar, to be hanged till death for the rape and murder of the minor. The court also ordered that a compensation of Rs 17 lakh to be paid to the family of the victim.
Police arrested the accused three days after the offence was registered.

30 January 2023 :

A court in Gujarat's Banaskantha district on 25 January 2023 convicted the accused in a 2019 triple murder case - all the victims being members of his family - and sentenced him to death.
Additional District Judge, Deodar, K.S. Hirpara said that considering the testimony of eye-witnesses and the gruesome crime committed by Bhikkhaji Thakor, it has considered it as "a rarest of rare case" and hence, handed down capital punishment.
Additional Public Prosecutor V. Thakor told reporters that the court has appreciated eyewitnesses' testimonies, and forensic evidence. He said it felt that the accused had not only murdered his mother Jabiben, and wife Jebarben but also one and half year old son Jignesh, who had little to do with spat between the accused and his mother.
Providing a brief history of the case, he said that Thakor was living with his mother, wife, and son in Bhakadiyal village. In 2019, he was not working to meet the financial needs of the family, so his mother scolded him. This irked him and in a fir of anger, he killed his mother, wife and son with an axe.
When family member saw the act, Bhikhaji's sister-in-law tried to intervene and stop him, he hit her with an axe on her spine, and she was lucky to survive. Court has sentenced Thakor to a life term for an attempt to murder his sister-in-law, the Additional Public Prosecutor said.

29 January 2023 :

A court in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on 25 January 2023 awarded death sentence to a man for raping and killing his relative, a seven-year-old girl in July 2021.
The Judge of the special Pocso court M A Somasekhar found the accused D Siddaiah guilty under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and IPC and sentenced him to capital punishment.
The girl's body was found in a plastic bag in a drainage canal on the outskirts of Ambavaram village in Giddalur mandal of Prakasam district after she went missing on 8 July 2021.
The girl's parents subsequently lodged a complaint with police and a case was registered under relevant sections of Pocso and IPC in Giddalur police station. Prakasam district superintendent of police Malika Garg instructed the police officials to investigate the case thoroughly, to collect proper physical evidence and to arrest the accused immediately. During the course of the investigation, police found that Siddaiah, 30, a close relative of the girl, who was estranged by his wife and living in the same street where the girl lived, had left the village since the day the girl went missing and suspected Siddaiah's role in the crime.
The sniffer dog tracked from the crime scene and went to Siddaiah's house where a blood-stained blanket, a bicycle and the girl's sandals were found. The accused was subsequently arrested and lodged in a jail in Ongole.
According to prosecution, on 8 July 2021 the man noticed the girl playing in the area and with an intention of raping her lured her by offering her money and took her into his house and raped her. When the girl started weeping, he killed her by hitting her head against a cot frame suspecting that he would be arrested if the matter came out. Later, to avoid suspicion and tampering with the evidence, he wrapped the girl's body in a plastic bag, took it on his bicycle and dumped in the drainage canal.

12 January 2023 :

A court in Uttar Pradesh on 11 January 2023 awarded a death sentence to a man for raping and killing a five-year-old girl in 2021.
Additional District and Sessions Court (POCSO), Special Judge Anu Saxena also imposed a fine of Rs 2.70 lakh on the convict Rambahadur Prajapati (45), government advocate (prosecutor) Kamal Singh said.
On 18 April 2021, Prajapati raped and strangled the minor in a village under Marka police station area, he said. 

12 December 2023 :

The Delhi High Court on December 11, 2023 directed Premakumari, the mother of Nimisha Priya, a Kerala nurse facing a death sentence in Yemen for her involvement in the murder of a local citizen, to furnish documents illustrating the legal option of blood money in the foreign court.
This financial compensation is considered a last resort to negotiate with the victim’s family and potentially save her daughter.
The petitioner, Premakumari, who hails from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad, approached the Delhi High Court seeking permission to travel to the foreign country along with three others, despite restrictions on Indians visiting the region.
The Central Government informed the court that India lacks diplomatic ties with Yemen, and its embassy there has been closed.
Nimisha’s only potential reprieve hinges on the victim’s family, the late Talal Abdo Mahdi, pardoning her in exchange for blood money, a compensation paid by the offender or their kin, in accordance with Sharia law and diplomatic intervention.
During December 11 hearing before Justice Subramonium Prasad, it was disclosed that Yemen’s Supreme Court had, on November 13, rejected Nimisha’s appeal, affirming the death sentence and leaving payment of blood money as the sole means of escaping capital punishment.
Justice Subramonium Prasad instructed, “File that portion with an affidavit where the Yemen court, while awarding the death penalty, has given this legal option of paying blood money,” and listed the matter for December 12.
Advocate Subhash Chandran K R, representing Priya’s mother, informed the high court that blood money is a recognized part of the legal system in the Middle Eastern country, permitted under Sharia law.
Nimisha, a Kerala nurse, had been working in Yemen when travel to and from the country was prohibited in 2016 due to the Civil War. While her husband and daughter returned to India in 2014, she remained due to work commitments. In 2015, with the assistance of Yemeni national Talal Mahdi, she established a clinic. However, conflicts arose, alleging abuse and torture by Mahdi, who also confiscated her passport, preventing her return to her home state. Mahdi falsely presented himself as her husband to Yemeni authorities, obstructing any aid from them.
Priya stands convicted of the murder of Talal Abdo Mahdi, who died in July 2017 after she injected him with sedatives in an attempt to reclaim her passport. It was alleged that Priya gave him sedatives leading to accidental overdose and death.

28 March 2023 :

The Supreme Court on 27 March 2023 released a death row convict upon finding that even though he was a juvenile at the time of the commission of the offence he was tried as an adult and was sentenced to death.
Noting that under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2015 Act), one cannot be subjected to death penalty and the maximum punishment is three years sentence, a Bench comprising Justice KM Joseph, Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Hrishikesh Roy passed orders to release Narayan Chetanram Chaudhary forthwith, after he has been in detention for over 28 years. Prosecution’s case Narayan along with two other accomplices had committed murder of five women (one of whom was pregnant at the time of commission of offence) and two children in Pune.
Narayan was arrested from Rajasthan on 5 September 1994 and is in detention for more than 28 years. The Trial Court had convicted and sentenced him to death in 1998. The High Court affirmed the sentence and so did the Apex Court. Thereafter, a review petition was filed, which was eventually dismissed. Subsequently, an application under 9(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 was moved claiming that Narayan was a juvenile at the time of the commission of the offence. In 2019, the Apex Court directed a Principal District and Sessions Judge, Pune (inquiring judge) to decide the juvenility of the applicant and send a report.
"The instant case reflects gross lethargic and negligent attitude of the State... Keeping in view Section 9(2) of the Act, we have no other option but to refer the matter to the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Pune, to decide the juvenility of the applicant", the Supreme Court observed in 2019 while directing inquiry on juvenility claim in 2019.
The report received from the inquiring judge confirmed the juvenility of the applicant at the time of commission of the offence. As per the chargesheet, Narayan was 20 years old at the time of the commission of the offence. According to the certificate of date of birth issued on the 30th January 2019 it is recorded that Narayan was born on 1 February 1982. Therefore, on the date of commission of the offence, Narayan would have been 12 years 6 months old. However, the certificate was issued in the name of one Niranaram. There were also discrepancies in his age reflected in various documents.

30 January 2023 :

Trial courts in India sentenced 165 people to death in 2022, the highest in a year in the last two decades. This is up from 146 prisoners who were sent to death row in 2021.
In almost a third of the capital punishment cases, the offender had committed a sexual crime. At the end of 2022, 539 were on death row, the highest since 2016. The population has steadily increased over the years – up 40% in 2022 from 2015. This is attributed to the large number of death penalties handed down by trial courts and the accompanying low rate of disposal of such cases by appellate courts. These conclusions are part of the ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics 2022’ published by Project 39A at NLU, Delhi.
The death sentence given to 38 people in February 2022 by an Ahmedabad court in the 2008 serial blasts case contributed to the sharp rise in the number in 2022.
In 2016, death penalty for sexual offences was given in 27, or 17.6%, of the 153 cases. This number shot up to 52, or 31.5%, out of 165 cases in 2022.
Anup Surendranath, law professor and executive director of Project 39A, says the increased numbers also reflect the growing trend in trial courts. “Trial courts have resumed imposing a high number of death sentences since the dip in 2020 due to the pandemic (which was the lowest at 77),” he said.
This, Surendranath said, is in stark contrast to the Supreme Court's efforts to highlight the serious problems with the manner in which death penalty sentencing is being carried out.
In May last year, the SC held that it was the duty of the trial courts to proactively elicit materials on mitigating circumstances while sentencing in death penalty cases and issued guidelines for the collection of such information.
Surendranath said, “The Supreme Court acknowledged the necessity for reform and identified a set of crucial questions for determination by a five-judge constitution bench. The ever-widening gap between SC guidance and the trial courts' blatant disregard for procedural guarantees has been repeatedly established in research by Project 39A.”
Another issue of concern is the increasing number of prisoners on death row.
The number has increased from 400 in December 2016 to 539 as of December 2022. The highest number of death row prisoners are in UP (100), followed by Gujarat (61) and Jharkhand (46).
“Appellate courts continue to commute or acquit a majority of the death penalty cases considered by them. But they are disposed of too slowly to match the volume of death sentences coming from trial courts. This results in the death row population increasing each year. All of this highlights the crisis in India's death penalty regime and forces us to ask the question whether it is a punishment that can ever be administered in a constitutionally acceptable manner,” Surendranath said.