Commute sentence, say 2 on death row for rape
Shibu.Thomas@timesgroup.com
Mumbai:06.06.2019
Two death row convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO employee gangrape and murder case have approached the Bombay high court to halt their execution scheduled for June 24.
The two have exhausted their appeals, and their mercy petition was turned down by the President in 2017. Purushottam Borate, 38, and Pradeep Kokade, 32, have claimed the “inordinate delay” in executing them violated their fundamental rights and urged the HC to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment.
A division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Swapna Joshi have scheduled the petitions for hearing on Thursday.
The convicts are lodged in Pune’s Yerwada prison. On April 10 this year, a Pune sessions court issued warrants setting June 24 as the date of execution. The hanging of the convicts would be the first in Maharashtra after Yakub Memon, accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was executed on July 30, 2015.
The incident dates back to November 1, 2007, when the 22-year-old woman employee of a BPO firm in Pune was picked up by Borate, the driver of the car provided by the firm, and his friend Kokade. They drove the victim to a secluded spot near Gahunje village, where they raped and murdered her. A Pune sessions court convicted them and sentenced them to death in March 2012. The Bombay high court confirmed the death sentence in September 2012, and the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2015. The Governor of Maharashtra rejected their mercy petitions in April 2016 and the President of India in May 2017.
“Excessive and unexplained delay of over four years (1,509 days) in execution of sentence of death causes unnecessary and avoidable pain, suffering and mental torment that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment violating Article 21 (right to life). The pain, suffering and mental torment caused by the delay is an additional punishment not authorised by law, exceeds constitutionally permissible limits and breaches the petitioner’s fundamental rights,” the petitions said.
Shibu.Thomas@timesgroup.com
Mumbai:06.06.2019
Two death row convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO employee gangrape and murder case have approached the Bombay high court to halt their execution scheduled for June 24.
The two have exhausted their appeals, and their mercy petition was turned down by the President in 2017. Purushottam Borate, 38, and Pradeep Kokade, 32, have claimed the “inordinate delay” in executing them violated their fundamental rights and urged the HC to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment.
A division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Swapna Joshi have scheduled the petitions for hearing on Thursday.
The convicts are lodged in Pune’s Yerwada prison. On April 10 this year, a Pune sessions court issued warrants setting June 24 as the date of execution. The hanging of the convicts would be the first in Maharashtra after Yakub Memon, accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was executed on July 30, 2015.
The incident dates back to November 1, 2007, when the 22-year-old woman employee of a BPO firm in Pune was picked up by Borate, the driver of the car provided by the firm, and his friend Kokade. They drove the victim to a secluded spot near Gahunje village, where they raped and murdered her. A Pune sessions court convicted them and sentenced them to death in March 2012. The Bombay high court confirmed the death sentence in September 2012, and the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2015. The Governor of Maharashtra rejected their mercy petitions in April 2016 and the President of India in May 2017.
“Excessive and unexplained delay of over four years (1,509 days) in execution of sentence of death causes unnecessary and avoidable pain, suffering and mental torment that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment violating Article 21 (right to life). The pain, suffering and mental torment caused by the delay is an additional punishment not authorised by law, exceeds constitutionally permissible limits and breaches the petitioner’s fundamental rights,” the petitions said.
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