The Supreme Court has upheld the Mumbai High Court’s decision to convert the death sentence of two convicts involved in the 2007 rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman working at a BPO into life imprisonment. The Pune Sessions Court further sentenced the convicts, Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokate, to death in 2012 after they were convicted for the heinous crime.
Following the Mumbai High Court’s conversion of the death penalty to life imprisonment, the Maharashtra government filed an appeal. However, the Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice Abhay S Oka, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Justice Augustine George Masih, rejected the appeal and upheld the decision of the lower court.
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In its ruling, the Mumbai High Court criticized the unreasonable delay in handling the mercy petitions and executing the sentence, stating that the state and central governments could have avoided the delay had they addressed the matter urgently. The court emphasized that any delay by the government or its agencies in processing the petitions would infringe upon the fundamental rights of the convicts.
In 2007, the victim, employed at Wipro’s BPO in Pune, brutally rape and murder by Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokate. The two men were arrest shortly after the crime and sentenced to death by the Pune Sessions Court in March 2012. Both convicts challenged the sentence in the Mumbai High Court, which upheld the decision. Their case then reached the Supreme Court, which also rejected their petition in 2015, maintaining the death penalty.
Following the rejection of their Supreme Court petition, the convicts further filed a fresh plea in the Bombay High Court, arguing that the delay in processing their mercy petitions warranted a reduction in their sentence. After reviewing the case, the Bombay High Court converted the death sentence into life imprisonment.
This verdict brings closure to a long-running legal battle surrounding the tragic crime.
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