Gauhati High Court reduces death sentence to rigorous imprisonment for life

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: A division bench of the Gauhati High Court, comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Mridul Kumar Kalita, sentenced an appellant to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life instead of the of the death penalty given to him by a trial court.

The bench said that the trial court, while imposing the ultimate penalty of death on the appellant, failed to take into consideration the possibility of his reformation, rehabilitation, and social reintegration. “It is only when the possibility of reformation, rehabilitation, and social reintegration of the convict is ruled out, the extreme penalty of death may be imposed, which is not the case in the instant case,” the court said, adding, “In view of the above discussion, we do not think that any of the factors in the present case discussed above warrant the award of the death penalty. There are no special reasons to impose the death penalty, and the mitigating factors in the present case, in our opinion, are sufficient to place it out of the ‘rarest of rare’ category.”

“For the reasons aforementioned, we are of the opinion that this is not a case where the death penalty should be imposed. The appellant, therefore, instead of being awarded the death penalty, is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life,” the high court said.

The appellant, Jashim Uddin Barbhuiya, impugning the judgement dated October 1, 2018 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Hailakandi in Sessions (T-1) has been convicted under Sections 376/302 of the Indian Penal Code as well as under Section 4 of the POCSO Act, 2012, and by order dated October 4, 2018, the appellant has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for the offence of committing rape/penetrative sexual assault and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 4 of the POCSO Act, 2012, in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 months. The appellant has also been sentenced to death for committing the offence of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, and was also sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000 under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. In default of payment of the fine, he will undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 months.

Also Read: Assam: Trio Sentenced to Rigorous Imprisonment for Gruesome Murder in Dhubri (sentinelassam.com)

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