On 11th June, the Calcutta High Court commuted the death sentence of a man, convicted of killing his former girlfriend by stabbing her 45 times, to life imprisonment. While passing the order, the High Court noted that the case did not fall in the category of the ‘rarest of the rare’ cases.
A bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi converted the death penalty of convict Susanta Chowdhury into a life sentence observing that there was a possibility of reformation in him.
“Taking into consideration the entire facts and circumstances of the present case including the ratio of the authorities relating to death penalty as also sentence of life imprisonment without remission, in our view, interest of justice would be subserved by commuting the death penalty to one of life imprisonment without the possibility of remission for another 40 years from the date of arrest of the appellant,” the bench said in its judgment dated 11th June.
The Background of the Case
Chowdhary had appealed before the High Court against his conviction and death sentence. He was arrested in May 2022 in for killing his 21-year-old former girlfriend when she was returning from a movie.
Disgruntled over his failed relationship with her, he killed her in an extremely brutal manner by stabbing her 45 times.
When examining the witness statments, the court noted that the crime was committed because of animosity between the accused and the victim. He had been threatening the victim as she had entered into a new relationship.
The court further noted that the convict did not release the victim as she was trying to defend herself. She fell to the ground after suffering wounds. Eyewitnesses unsuccessfully tried to save the victim from Chowdhary.
However, the High Court reduced his punishment after considering his appeal observing that he did not have any prior criminal record and that the prosecution could not establish that the murder was committed with the intention of creating a fear psychosis in the public.
Other instances of courts commuting death sentences
This is not the only case where the death sentence of a convict has been commuted by a court. In several other cases, courts have commuted the death sentences of convicts for the crimes committed by them not fitting the ‘rarest of the rare’ category.
In April this year, the Supreme Court commuted the death penalty of a man convicted of brutally murdering his entire family, including his wife and 4 children, in Kerala and raping his own daughter.
The top court reduced his penalty to life imprisonment on the grounds, including ‘significant improvement’ in his conduct during his imprisonment, his childhood trauma due to neglect and family instability, and lack of any criminal history.
Similarly, in December 2024, the Chhattisgarh High Court commuted the death sentence of a 34-year-old man to a life sentence. The man was convicted of killing his wife and three children. The High Court cited the same reason of the case not fitting in the ‘rarest of the rare’ category.
In another case, in April 2023, the Supreme Court converted the capital punishment of a 31-year-old man into life sentence for murdering his sister and her lover. At the time of the murders, the convict was 25 years old. The Supreme Court noted that the convict was “well-behaved” and without a criminal mindset.
The problematic implications of such verdicts
Cases like these, where courts show the convicts of brutal crimes leniency, often leave an impression on the minds of people that perhaps the ‘reformation’ or the ‘future prospects’ of convicts weigh more in the minds of judges than the rights of innocent victims.
Often times, the courts’ opinion of whether a crime was shocking or brutal enough to attract capital punishment does not seem to concur with collective feeling of the society.
