The Delhi High Court has commuted the death penalty given to two convicts in the Jigisha Ghosh murder case to life imprisonment.
A bench with Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta, upheld the sentence of life imprisonment given by a trial court to the third convict for the murder of the IT executive in 2009.
Trial Court Erred In Death Penalty Sentence
The two convicts Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla had been awarded death penalty in 2016 while the third offender was exempted from similar penalty due to his good behaviour in jail, and awarded life imprisonment
While passing the sentence for death penalty, the trial court had observed that the young woman had been killed in a “cold-blooded, inhuman and cruel manner” and “brutally mauled to death”.
According to the police robbery was the motive behind the killing.
Advocate Amit Kumar appearing on behalf of Shukla and Malik, sought for the death penalty order to be set aside on the contention that the trial court had erred by awarding the sentence based on nothing more than “biased jail/ probation reports” about them.
A Quick Recap Of the Terrible Crime
The 28-year-old Jigisha Ghosh was abducted by four men in a car a little away from her home on March 18 2009, after being dropped by her office cab at 4 AM. She was subsequently found dead near Surajkund in Faridabad on Mar 21.
On Mar 25, the Delhi Police rounded up four men for their alleged involvement in Jigisha’s murder and filed the chargesheet in court later in June that year. The trial began on April 15, 2010 where Jigisha’s father provided testimony and in July the three accused were convicted for abducting, robbing and murdering Jigisha.
In August 2016, the Court awarded death penalty to two men and life term to another, along with a fine of rupees nine lakh on all three. They challenged the verdict and in September 2016, the matter was sent to the HC for confirmation of the death sentence, where the death sentence was commuted.
