Two men get life term in 2015 murder case

A court here has sentenced two men to life imprisonment in a 2015 murder case, saying that undue sympathy to impose an inadequate sentence would harm the justice system by undermining public confidence in the efficacy of law.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Kumar Kharta observed that though the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors, the case was beyond the purview of the ‘rarest of the rare’ doctrine to award the death penalty.

The court was hearing a case against Gurcharan Singh and Sheesh Ram, who had been earlier convicted under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

Additional public prosecutor Pankaj Kumar Ranga argued that both convicts in furtherance of their common intention committed heinous offence of murder of the victim, Manish, on April 1, 2015, and hence, they deserved maximum punishment.

In an order dated May 13, the court cited a 2005 Supreme Court judgment, according to which, “Undue sympathy to impose an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system to undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law. It is therefore the duty of every court to award a proper sentence.”