Mumbai: Strangulating a pregnant wife to death over unfulfilled dowry demands, is not exceptionally violent or brutal, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has said. The HC has directed the jail authorities to consider the remission of police personnel who was convicted for killing his wife in 2001.
The court noted that petitioner Pradipsingh Thakur was eligible for remission under the Government Resolution (GR) issued on March 15, 2010, and categorised his crime as premeditated which would make him eligible to undergo 22 years of imprisonment including remission. The jail authorities have been asked to form an opinion whether Thakur has undergone 22 years in prison, including remission.
“Of course, the act of strangulation, which is attributed to the petitioner is a violent act but whether such an act can be termed as one causing death with brutality or with exceptional violence, is required to be looked into. …. we are of the view that it cannot be inferred that the petitioner has caused the murder of his wife with exceptional violence or that with brutality,” a bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Vrushali Joshi said on November 26.
The judges said that they are required to be sensitive to the nature of injuries suffered by the deceased. In this case, the victim suffered two injuries; one ligature mark on neck and another nail abrasion on right side of neck.
The court opined that considering the injuries, Thakur’s case cannot fall under “exceptional circumstances” so as to make him liable to undergo 26 years of imprisonment for murdering his wife with exceptional violence or brutality. Hence, the court refused to hand Thakur a sentence of 26 years in prison, which is for persons whose crimes are categorized as violent or brutal.
The HC was hearing a petition filed by Singh praying that his crime be categorized in category 2(b) of the March 2010 GR, by which he would be entitled to 22 years of imprisonment.
The two married in 1994. Thakur was booked for strangulating his wife in 2001 and was sentenced to death penalty by the sessions court. The HC, however, said that it was not a rarest of rare case and reduced his sentence to life in prison.
In 2018, the State rejected his remission request contending that he was a police personnel at the time of the offence and that his wife was pregnant.
The court rejected the argument saying that the GR intends to grant remission to all categories of convicts except few specifically carved out therein.
“Just because the petitioner was an employee of Police department and the fact that he murdered his pregnant wife by itself would not disentitle him to get the benefit of remission which is provided under the legal provision,” the court added.
