ANI
The court’s September 27 decision replaced the death sentence with life imprisonment. This case does not fall in the ‘rarest of the rare’ category. Firstly, it is based on circumstantial evidence, and secondly, the appellants have no prior criminal record.
The Allahabad High Court commuted the death sentence of a father-son duo convicted in a 2005 double murder case to life imprisonment. A division bench of Justice Atau Rehman Masoodi and Justice Ajay Kumar Srivastava upheld his murder conviction but ruled that the case did not qualify as ‘the rarest of the rare’ to award the death penalty. The court said the case was based on circumstantial evidence and the convicts had no prior criminal history, Bar and Bench reported.
The court’s September 27 decision replaced the death sentence with life imprisonment. This case does not fall in the ‘rarest of the rare’ category. Firstly, it is based on circumstantial evidence, and secondly, the appellants have no prior criminal record. The case dates back to 2005 when deceased Krishna Kumar Gupta had entered into an agreement with a builder to construct shops and an office in Hazratganj. Vijay Sharma, who owned a nearby security agency, would often threaten Gupta, claiming that the land belonged to Kuber Finance, to which he owed money. Sharma demanded three shops in return for repaying the loan.
On 16 April 2005, during a heated argument, Vijay Sharma’s son Dheeraj handed him a gun. Bullets were fired, due to which Gupta died on the spot. Gupta’s son Kapil later died of his injuries. The trial court had sentenced both of them to death for the murders. Setting aside the trial court order, the Allahabad High Court said that the mere fact that death penalty can be awarded does not mean that it should be awarded.
