The Supreme Court has questioned the delay in the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh, despite the Centre calling it a 'serious offence'.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear a plea challenging the denial of parole extension to Santosh Kumar Singh, convicted in the 1996 Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case, while the Delhi High Court is already reviewing the matter.
The Supreme Court of India has acquitted Surendra Koli in one of the Nithari murder cases, paving the way for his release. Koli was earlier acquitted in other Nithari killing cases.
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it has "no problem" with commutation of death sentence of Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar to life term and the petition in this regard has to be allowed in view of the court's verdict that delay in deciding mercy pleas can be a ground for such relief.
Amid a raging debate on the issue of clemency for killers of Rajiv Gandhi, the main investigator in the 20-year-old case D R Karthikeyan says that he will be happy if the death penalty of the three accused is commuted to life sentence.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the mastermind in the Beant Singh assassination case, to life imprisonment, while it upheld the trial court's penalty to the four other accused in the case.A division bench of the court comprising Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Arvind Kumar termed the case of Hawara, who was awarded the capital punishment by the trial court in 2007, as a 'boundary line for death'.
Surendra Koli, accused in the infamous Nithari serial killings, has been released from the Luksar district jail in Greater Noida, a day after the Supreme Court acquitted him in the last pending case linked to the 2006 serial murders that had shocked the nation, officials said on Thursday.
A Dubai court has pardoned 17 Indian expatriates who were on death row in Sharjah for the January 2009 murder of a Pakistani man. According to the court ruling, the 17 Indians have had their death sentences commuted through the pardon, but received a suspended two year prison sentence each. As they have already served more than the prescribed time in prison, they can walk free even today after completing all the legal formalities.
A CBI official in New Delhi said the team was waiting for the judgment copy and would take a call on next steps after studying it.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta, however, upheld the life imprisonment awarded to the third convict by a trial court in the case.
A curative petition is the last legal remedy available to a convict. In his plea, Vinay Sharma has said his young age has been erroneously rejected as a mitigating circumstance. The review pleas of all the convicts have been rejected by the SC and they're set to be hanged on January 22.
The former IPS officer's son had been sentenced to death by the Delhi high court in the case relating to rape and murder of the Delhi college student.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the argument that a three-judge bench, rather than a two-judge bench, should hear appeals of convicts in the 2002 Godhra train burning case. The court found that the Gujarat High Court commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment, therefore not requiring a three-judge bench. The hearing of the appeals will continue on Wednesday, with the state government seeking restoration of the death sentences of 11 convicts.
The Supreme Court expressed deep regret that the actual perpetrator of the Nithari killings was not established despite a prolonged investigation, while acquitting Surendra Koli in the last Nithari murder case.
Kuwait has executed 25 Indian nationals in the past five years.
The Delhi Police had closed this case in 1994 for want of evidence.
The court has also slapped a fine of Rs 35,000 on Koli and Rs 25,000 on Pandher, CBI spokesperson said.
Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story on the alleged links between the country's powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and Al Qaeda.
The plea said if imprisonment for life is construed till natural life, then it violates the fundamental right of a convicted person.
Swamy Shraddananda, jailed for 30 years for killing his wife, has moved the Supreme Court seeking authorities to decide his mercy plea before the President in December, 2023.
At Mumbai's iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, where Abu Ismail and Ajmal Kasab had gunned down scores of innocent commuters on the night of November 26, 2008, people burst crackers and distributed sweets, after the latter was awarded the death sentence by a special anti-terror court on Thursday. One man in particular, NGO worker Pradeep Bhavnani, initiated the celebration. He had visited the Siddhivinayak temple earlier in the day to pray.
The apex court in May agreed to hear a plea filed by the father of one of the victims challenging the high court's order acquitting Koli in the case.
An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie and his 682 supporters to death, a move that could raise tension in the country, which has been gripped by turmoil since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year.
In a decision that could lead to a final view on the clemency petition of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Home Minister P Chidambaram has recommended to the President commutation of the death sentence of a prisoner in Tamil Nadu.
The Supreme Court of India has directed the President to consider the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the 1995 assassination case of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The court gave the President two weeks to decide on the plea. Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007 for his role in the bombing that killed Beant Singh and 16 others. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition on his behalf in 2012.
The eight jailed former Indian Navy personnel in Qatar have been given 60 days' time to appeal against the varying prison terms handed by a Qatari court last week that came following commutation of their death sentences, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
Earlier in January this year, the death sentence of Surender Koli was commuted to life imprisonment by the Allahabad high court.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Friday described as "big relief" the Supreme Court's decision to commute to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to murder convict M N Das and asked central and state governments to take steps for the release of the three death row convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The Lucknow bench directed that the convicts serve their sentence in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on them.
The Supreme Court of India has directed the Odisha government to decide within six weeks on a plea for remission filed by Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the murders of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons in 1999. Singh, who has spent over 24 years in prison, claims to have "repented" his actions and seeks an opportunity to reform his character. The court issued the notice after Singh argued that he has already served more than the required period of sentence and that his right to liberty is being jeopardized by the delay in processing his plea.
The CBI lawyer pleaded for the highest penalty for the convict, calling the crime "rarest of the rare".
A G Perarivalan with his mother Arputham Ammal and others at a tea stall in Vellore, Tuesday, March 15, 2022, before heading home following his release on bail from the Puzhal jail after more than 30 years.
The condemned prisoners convicted in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case deserve death sentence, the Supreme Court said on Thursday and refused to go into the merit of the conviction while hearing their plea on commuting death penalty to life due to delay in deciding their mercy plea.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the bail pleas of the convicts in the 2002 Godhra train burning case who were awarded the death penalty by the trial court but it was commuted to life sentence by the Gujarat high court.
"The finality of death sentence is extremely important and a condemned prisoner should not be under the impression, that the death sentence remains open ended and can be questioned by them all the time," the SC said.
Singh has sought the application of a more liberal remission policy to ensure his premature release from a prison in the state where he is lodged for more than 24 years.
The Allahabad High Court on Friday commuted the death sentence of Monu Mittal alias Pawan, the main convict in the Manjunath murder case, to life imprisonment. Two other were acquitted of charges.
One hundred years ago, a group of 10 revolutionaries carried out an operation that shook the British Empire. Utkarsh Mishra revisits the 'Kakori Conspiracy Case', a turning point in the armed struggle for independence.
Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the president to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of anyone convicted of any offence.
Has death penalty in the statute served as a deterrent for heinous crime?
