A Bench of Justices Shampa Sarkar and Smita Das De upheld the man’s conviction for murdering his wife with an axe and injuring two of her family members. However, it commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, holding that the trial court had failed to properly consider the mitigating circumstances and the possibility of his reform.
“The learned Judge stressed on the Vedic Mantras chanted by the spouses at the time of marriage and arrived at the conclusion that, as the appellant did not hesitate to murder his wife and chose to forget the love, affection, contribution and sacrifice of his spouse, this was a rarest of ‘rare’ case to award death penalty…Thus, according to the trial court the appellant was a ‘demon’ and his mind could not be changed even if he was given training and spiritual lectures in the correctional home. We do not agree to the death penalty. Every person guilty of commission of a grave offence can undergo transformation,” the Court said.