Pleading mercy, convict quotes Shakespeare, gets stringent punishment
Pavneet Singh Chadha
Tribune News Service
Mohali, March 23
Dr Rajwinderpal Singh, lab-in-charge and assistant chemical medical examiner, who was sentenced to 7-years rigorous imprisonment, quoted words of the famous English playwright, William Shakespeare, pleading the court to take a lenient view.
Quoting Portia’s famous mercy plea from the Bard’s 16th century play, “The Merchant of Venice”, where Portia is begging for mercy from Shylock, the play’s antagonist, the convict submitted to the court:
“The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
Dr Rajwinderpal further submitted that his parents had died due to the registration of the case against him and “God had already sentenced him.”
The court, however, announced the maximum jail term among the convicts for the former lab in-charge.
The court of Additional and Sessions Judge Monika Goyal observed that the convicts helped those accused under the NDPS Act, rape and dowry death cases, in securing acquittal on the basis of fake negative drug sample reports.
The court observed that the convicts had pleaded mercy but they had not seen the pathetic condition of the families who suffered due to the drug abuse.
