INDIA: ODISHA HC COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY IN TRIPLE MURDER CASE

September 10, 2024:

The Odisha High Court on August 28, 2024 commuted death sentence of one Nabin Dehury to imprisonment for life till his natural death without remission or commutation.
Nabin was convicted in the triple murder case in which Pirobati Behera was killed along with her daughter Sabitri Sahu and son-in-law Giridhari Sahu at village Lapada under Mahulpali police station in Sambalpur district on October 21, 2020.
On August 9, 2023, the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Kuchinda sentenced Nabin to death with a direction that he be hanged by neck till he is dead and to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh. The trial court held the case warranted capital punishment to meet the ends of justice as it involved an act of extreme brutality and magnitude of the cruelty thrust in committing the crime bringing it to the category of rarest of rare case.
However, the division bench of Justice SK Sahoo and Justice Chittaranjan Dash said, “We are of the view that public opinion or the society’s expectation may be to confirm the death sentence of appellant Nabin Dehury since it is a case of triple murder and two deceased were ladies, but it must be remembered that such opinion or expectation is neither an objective circumstance relating to crime, nor the criminal, and therefore, this court must exercise judicial restraint and play a balancing role.”
The appellant comes from a rural and economically poor background and on account of property dispute and after losing the ancestral property in the court battle, he had done away with the lives of three deceased. The appellant is having a criminal antecedent of a magistrate triable offence in which trial is yet to be over and therefore, he cannot be said to be a hardened criminal, the bench observed.
“We are of the humble view that death penalty would be disproportionate, unwarranted and life imprisonment would be a more appropriate sentence,” the bench ruled.
The bench also directed for payment of compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the minor son and daughter of deceased Giridhar Sahu and Sabitri Sahu, Rs 5 lakh to daughter of deceased Pirobati Behera and Rs 2.5 lakh each to her grandchildren through Odisha Victim Compensation (Amendment) Scheme, 2018.