INDIA: BOMBAY HIGH COURT COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE OF TWO CONVICTS IN NASHIK KIDNAPPING-MURDER CASE

June 28, 2026:

The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentences of two men convicted in the 2013 kidnapping and murder of 22-year-old youth from Ozar area of Nashik district in Maharashtra, ETV reported on June 26, 2026.
Setting aside the capital punishment awarded by the Nashik Sessions Court, the High Court granted partial relief to Chetan Pagare and Aman Jat in the kidnapping and murder of Vipin Bafna. The court ruled that the case does not fall within the "rarest of rare" category and commuted their sentence to 30 years of imprisonment.
The bench comprising Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande delivered the judgment while hearing the convicts' appeals against the death penalty and the Maharashtra government's plea seeking confirmation of the capital sentence. The court, however, upheld the conviction.
Bafna, a resident of Ozar in Niphad taluka, had left his home on June 8, 2013. He did not return home, and the next day his father received a ransom call from Vipin's cell phone, with the caller demanding ₹1 crore for his release. Subsequently, the family had no further contact with either Vipin or the accused.
On June 14, Vipin's body was recovered from a farm in the Adgaon area. Police subsequently arrested five persons and registered cases against them on charges of kidnapping, murder and under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In December 2022, Special Judge Aditi Kadam of the Nashik Sessions Court convicted Pagare and Jat and sentenced them to death while acquitting three co-accused due to insufficient evidence.
The special sessions court noted that the deceased had no personal enmity with the accused and observed that the murder was committed without any concrete motive. The court described the crime as displaying a depraved mindset and classified the offence as one of the "rarest of rare" cases, citing the brutality of the act, the absence of remorse, and limited prospects for the convicts' rehabilitation.