STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A Division Bench of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Mohd Akram Chowdhary commuted death sentence into life-imprisonment in a rape & murder case.
While commuting death sentence of Sonam Dorjay @ Jamwang Tashi into life-imprisonment, the Division Bench observed that having regard to recording of conviction based on circumstantial evidence only, long incarceration of appellant for more than two decades, and after critical appreciation of the entire evidence in its minute detail, we are of considered opinion that the present case does not warrant award of extreme sentence of death to accused, as sequence of alleged crime is not that diabolical or cruel so as to attract the extreme penalty of capital punishment. The convict is stated to be in the middle of his age and was a young-man when he is alleged to have committed the crime. He is also stated to be belonging to poor strata of society and cannot be said to be a threat to the society at large, which may warrant eliminating him to save the society, the Court observed. “On perusal of the sentencing order dated 04.12.2012, passed by the trial court, DB found that the convict was sentenced to capital punishment of death for the commission of murder punishable under Section 302 RPC, however, no sentence has been awarded for the conviction of rape punishable under Section 376 RPC, though the conviction was recorded for the commission of both the aforesaid offences. Though it could be a justifiable reason to remand the case to the trial court to decide this aspect of the case, however, in view of the inordinate delay in disposal of the case by the trial court and long incarceration spanning over two decades, instead of remanding the case to trial court, it is proposed to decide the same by this Court. The convict is, thus, sentenced to undergo eight years imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 5,000 for the commission of offence punishable under Section 376 RPC. In default of payment of fine, the appellant-convict shall undergo simple imprisonment for a period of two months. Both the sentences of imprisonment are directed to run concurrently,” the Court observed, adding that impugned judgment of recording conviction of the appellant-accused for the commission of rape and murder, is maintained and upheld, however, impugned order of sentence, is only modified.
