The award of life imprisonment with a rider that it means "remainder of life" came under sharp attack from the Supreme Court on Thursday which said that it would be better to award death penalty to such convicts.
Eleven convicts in the Godhra train burning case were on Tuesday handed down death sentence while 20 others were given life imprisonment by a special court in the 2002 incident that left 59 karsevaks dead and triggered riots which claimed over 1,200 lives in Gujarat.
Former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, who was also a follower of the sect, was shot dead in 2002.
A Patna court on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Pappu Yadav and former Member of Legislative Assembly Rajan Tiwari for the murder of Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Ajit Sarkar. During the trial, the CBI produced 61 witnesses in support of its case, while 27 witnesses were produced by the accused in their defence. Sarkar, a legislator from Purnea, was shot dead by men acting on Yadav's orders on June 14, 1998.
Mohan was released from the Saharsa jail on April 27 following an amendment in Bihar's prison rules.
The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (Prevention) court, hearing the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, on Tuesday sentenced two convicts to life imprisonment while three others were awarded rigorous imprisonment ranging from five to 14 years.
Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Vikram Saini and 11 others were sentenced to two years imprisonment in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case by a special MP/MLA court on Tuesday.
On August 18, the apex court convicted Singh in the case, overturning the orders of the trial court and the Patna high court that had acquitted him.
The CBI's failure to file a chargesheet within the mandated 90 days has resulted in bail being granted to two key suspects in the rape-murder case of an on-duty medic at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata. This comes just days after the West Bengal Police secured capital punishment for a convict in a similar crime against a minor. The delay in justice has sparked outrage, particularly among the victim's family and junior doctors who are demanding accountability.
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.
The lawyer submitted that even though the TADA court had held that it was not bound by the assurances of the government, the top court has the power to decide the issue.
The high court upheld total 31 convictions in the case and commuted the death penalties of the 11 convicts to life term, Mehta said.
The three new laws -- the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act -- will replace the colonial era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha, while granting them the relief took note of the time they have already served and the unlikelihood of their appeals being taken up for disposal anytime soon.
During his temporary release period, Singh will go to the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat, they further said.
The Supreme Court has allowed the parents of the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder victim to pursue their plea for a further court-monitored CBI probe into the incident before the Calcutta High Court. The parents had expressed dissatisfaction with the CBI's initial probe and sought a more thorough investigation. The court, without making comments, disposed of the application, allowing the parents to continue the proceedings before the high court. The case has also prompted the Supreme Court to consider recommendations for preventing gender-based violence and developing safety protocols for medical staff at hospitals across the nation.
Addition Sessions Judge Rajendra Kumar Shastri had on March 18 held Sharma guilty of hatching the conspiracy to murder Shivani, who had allegedly threaten to expose the suspended IPS officer's alleged involvement in leaking classified documents to her, nine years ago. Three other co-accused -- Sri Bhagwan Sharma, Pradeep Sharma and Satya Prakash -- were also held guilty for executing the suspended police official's plot to kill Shivani.
If Prakash Jha is able to transfer today's social and political reality onto the screen, the future seasons of Aashram might just get a much-needed dose of eyeball-grabbing power, observes Deepa Gahlot.
A police cavalcade carrying gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed left for the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat on Tuesday evening, hours after he was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in a 2006 kidnapping case by a court in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, a senior official said.
A special court in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur on Tuesday sentenced a PhD scholar to five life imprisonments, to be served concurrently, for sexually assaulting minors and posting videos of the acts on the Internet to make money, officials said.
Three others too were sentenced to life in the Mahendra Singh Bhati murder case.
A sessions court in Kerala on Wednesday awarded double life sentence in the Uthra murder case to the victim's husband for killing his wife using a cobra, saying the crime was 'definitely diabolic, cruel, heinous and dastardly' and committed with 'unparalleled wickedness.'
This Women's Day Week, we pay tribute to the extraordinary courage, resilience, and leadership of three iconic Indian queens -- Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, Rani Chennamma of Kittur, and Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar of Malwa.
Besides the murder charges, the Barwala police had also invoked offences of wrongful confinement in the two FIRs.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the bail pleas of three convicts serving life term in the 2002 Godhra train burning case, which plunged Gujarat into one of the worst communal riots, terming it a "very serious incident".
The gangster-politician was booked in 65 criminal cases ranging from murder to extortion and was elected an MLA five times on the tickets of different political parties.
The Kerala high court on Monday upheld the conviction and life sentence of 10 accused, including suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative Tadiyantavide Naseer, by an NIA court in 2013 in a case regarding recruitment of youths from Kerala for terror camps in Jammu and Kashmir to 'wage war against India'.
Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse sentenced to death in Yemen for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national, faces imminent execution despite the payment of blood money. Despite the lack of bilateral ties between India and war-torn Yemen, family members and human rights activists are clinging to hope for a last-minute pardon. The family has raised funds through a crowdfunding campaign to cover legal fees and negotiations, and is prepared to pay any additional amount required. However, the execution order received presidential approval despite ongoing proceedings, leaving little time for intervention. Priya's family is burdened by debt and seeks urgent support from the Indian government to save her life.
A TADA court on Thursday sentenced seven people convicted in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case to rigorous imprisonment ranging from five years to life imprisonment.
'Justice may or may not happen, but who are those people who did this to her?' 'If the hospital authorities had helped us that day, or the police, then the real culprits would have been caught.' 'Getting justice for my daughter is my goal now and I want the CM to remember that.'
The Bombay high court on Tuesday commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit, who were convicted by a Kolhapur court for kidnapping 14 children and killing five of them between 1990 and 1996.
The government is bound by the assurance given by the then deputy prime minister L K Advani to the Portugal government that the maximum sentence handed out to gangster Abu Salem will not exceed 25 years, the Union home secretary has told the Supreme Court.
'Parents are forced to provide their children to Russian re-education camps in occupied territories and in different parts of Russia, for example, in Chechnya, where Ukrainian children wearing military uniform are taught to use weapons.'
Life in entire Kashmir Valley was thrown out of gear on Friday following a separatist shutdown and incidents of violence those left 14 persons including six cops wounded.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Bihar government to produce complete original records with regard to the remission granted to former MP Anand Mohan, who was serving life term in the 1994 murder case of then Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah.
The newly enacted laws are -- the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act
They were each sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 28 years behind bars.
Five Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants, arrested for their connections with the 2006 Varanasi blasts accused Waliullah, were on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment by a court in Lucknow.
Singh, 31, and Rashid, 56, won the recent Lok Sabha elections from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab and Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir, respectively, as Independents while being incarcerated.
The right hand of TJ Joseph, professor of Newman College in Thodupuzha in Idukki district, was chopped off by alleged PFI activists on July 4, 2010.
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