Not A "Rarest Of The Rare" Case: Allahabad HC Commutes Capital Punishment Of 3 Men To Life Imprisonment In Running Car Gang-Rape & Murder Case

The Allahabad High Court has commuted the death sentence of three men to life imprisonment for a fixed term of 25 years without any remission in running car gang-rape and murder case.

A Reference was made by the Additional Sessions Judge, Bulandshahr for confirmation of capital punishment awarded to the said men.

A Single Bench of Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan observed, “So far sentence of the appellant is concerned, the Trial Court awarded the death sentence to all the three appellants. However, the Court finds merit in the argument raised by the counsel for the appellant that it is not a ‘rarest of the rare’ case where death penalty could be awarded and the Trial Court has not recorded any mitigating circumstances which require that only death penalty should be awarded to the accused.”

Advocates Anil Kumar Singh, Dharmendra Singh, Rahul Srivastava, and Sikandar Khan appeared for the appellants/accused while AGA Ganesh Sanker Srivastava appeared for the State and Advocate Saurabh Gaur appeared for the informant.

Brief Facts -

In 2018, an unknown body of a girl was recovered by the police near a small canal/drain. It was reported that no visible injury mark was there on the dead body and the same was sent to the hospital for postmortem. In the meantime, the victim’s father reached hospital and identified her body. After a few days, the police got a secret information about movement of the two accused who were coming in a white colour Alto Car on which a sticker by the name of ‘Abbasi boys’ was pasted. The police waylaid them and recovered the car. The driver and persons sitting in the car were apprehended by the police and from their personal search, some money was recovered. On searching the car, one ladies slipper of right foot was recovered. The police recorded their confessional statements in which they gave details of the moments, the offence was committed.

Meanwhile, the victim’s father identified the slipper which her daughter was wearing. During the investigation, two accused confessed their guilt and gave details of how they committed the offence. It was stated that both of them with one more person decided to pick up a girl to have fun. Thereafter, they took U-turn and saw a girl coming alone and again they took U-Turn from near a showroom. Then they turned towards an unmelted path, stopped their car, and forcibly took the girl into their car and in the running car, committed rape with her one by one. It was further stated that, when the girl started crying, they with the help of dupatta (Scarf) which she was wearing on her neck, strangulated her to death and her body was thrown in a drain near village Bali Akbarpur and thereafter, they came back. Based on this information, the police also arrested the third accused. The Trial Court held the appellants guilty and vide order of substantive sentence, awarded death penalty to them.

The High Court in view of the above facts, said, “… we find that the sentence of capital punishment be commuted to life imprisonment as the trial Court while awarding death sentence has not recorded any mitigating circumstances in the instant case. The Trial Court has not recorded any specific finding that it is an exceptional case to award death sentence.”

The Court further pointed out the following mitigating circumstances –

(i) The accused appellants have no criminal history and have their families in support.

(ii) The accused-appellants are aged about 24 years as per statement under Section 313 Cr.P.C. and one is facing health problems, therefore, the possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the appellants in the society cannot be ruled out as the Trial Court has not recorded any finding that awarding severest punishment is the only possibility in the present case.

(iii) The Trial Court has also not recorded any finding that accused can be a menace to the society before awarding capital punishment.

(iv) The Trial Court has not recorded any aggravating circumstances against the appellants which can over weigh the mitigating circumstances especially, when the appellants have no criminal history.

(v) There should be exceptional circumstances warranting imposition of excess death penalty which cannot be reversed.

(vi) Lastly, the trial court has also not recorded any finding as to how the present case is rarest of the rare case even though the accused has committed the gravest offence.

“In the light of the judgment of Supreme Court (supra), there is no aggravating circumstances as the Trial Court has not recorded any satisfaction that in case the life imprisonment awarded to the accused persons, there will be a security threat to the society as the accused persons have no criminal history”, it noted.

Accordingly, the High Court modified the sentence.

Cause Title- Zulfikar Abbasi v. State of U.P. and Another (Neutral Citation: 2024:AHC:162095-DB)

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