The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Bombay High Court’s decision to commute the death sentences of two men convicted in the 2007 gang-rape and murder of a Pune BPO employee to a life sentence for a period of 35 years. The ruling was based on the grounds of an inordinate delay in the execution of their sentences.
A bench consisting of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Augustine George Masih dismissed an appeal by the Maharashtra government, which contested the high court’s judgment.
Originally, the convicts, Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade, were scheduled for execution on June 24, 2019. However, mere days before, on June 21, 2019, the Bombay High Court intervened, ordering a stay on the execution pending further orders. This decision was followed by a ruling on July 29, 2019, which officially stayed their death warrants.
The High Court had pointed to the “undue, inordinate, and unreasonable” delays in executing the death penalty, highlighting that these could have been avoided had the mercy petitions and the execution process been handled with more urgency. “We find that there has been undue and unexplained delay by both the state and central government in processing the mercy petitions,” noted the high court in its judgment.
The court emphasized that when the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution is at stake, all arms of the state, including the executive, courts, and offices of the Governor and President, must uphold these fundamental rights diligently.
The judgment further criticized the state government’s handling of the execution procedures, stating that merely requesting the sessions court to set an execution date does not constitute adequate compliance with its duties.
The case dates back to November 1, 2007, when a 22-year-old employee of Wipro BPO boarded her usual company-contracted cab to commute to her night shift in Pune. The cab driver, Borate, and his friend Kokade diverted from the scheduled route to a secluded location where they raped and murdered her using her dupatta, subsequently attempting to disfigure her face to hinder identification.
