Delhi Court Imposes Life Sentences on Trio for 2011 Murder-Kidnapping

A court here has sentenced three men to life imprisonment in a kidnapping and murder case, saying though the offences were heinous, capital punishment was not being awarded as there was a chance of the convicts being reformed.The court also did not award the maximum punishment of death sentence, observing that the crime was not within the ambit of the rarest of the rare doctrine.

A court here has sentenced three men to life imprisonment in a kidnapping and murder case, saying though the offences were ''heinous'', capital punishment was not being awarded as there was a chance of the convicts being reformed.

The court also did not award the maximum punishment of death sentence, observing that the crime was not within the ambit of the 'rarest of the rare' doctrine. Additional Sessions Judge Virender Kumar Kharta was hearing the case against the trio who were convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 364 A (kidnapping for ransom etc.).

As per the facts of the case, the court noted that Anadil Hasan, Mehboob Alam and Raju Lal Jaat kidnapped Rohit Ahlawat (27) for ransom and later murdered him in the intervening night of November 20-21, 2011.

In a judgment pronounced on Monday, the court said that the convicts were not involved in any crime earlier, nor did they commit any penal offence after being released on bail.

''The prosecution has not furnished any material based on which can be said that the convicts cannot be reformed.

''The case does not fall within the purview of 'rarest of the rare' (doctrine) and the convicts may be reformed and hence death sentence is not being awarded,'' it said. The court, however, said that the offences were ''heinous'' and the trauma of the deceased's family members could not be ignored.

It then awarded life imprisonment to Hasan, Alam and Jaat for the offences of criminal conspiracy and kidnapping.

The court also sentenced Hasan and Alam to life sentence for the offence of murder.

The sentences will run concurrently, it said.

The court said that as the family members of the deceased suffered loss of dependency, mental trauma, inconvenience, hardship, love and affection, disappointment and frustration, adequate compensation had to be granted.

As the convicts did not have the financial capacity to pay compensation, it referred the case to the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for determination and award of adequate compensation.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)