Why Pallavi Purkayasta's killer was not given death: Court explains

Observing that the murder of Mumbai-based lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha was a case of cruelty and not “extreme cruelty”, the Bombay sessions court has explained why the accused was given a life sentence and not death. “It caused her a painful death. This can be termed as cruelty, but not extreme cruelty,” says a Times of India  report quoting the Court judgment. The court observed this when pointing to the 16 injuries on Pallavi’s body, of which only the one on her trachea was on a vital organ. Sessions court judge Vrushali Joshi who presided over the case said in her judgment, that mitigating circumstances do not allow pardoning the convict Sajjad Pathan, but it reduces the quantum of punishment, DNA reported. [caption id=“attachment_413678” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pallavi Purkayastha. Image courtesy: Facebook.[/caption] Pathan was given the life sentence due to the lack of “aggravating evidence” against him. Due to this the case did not fall under the category of ‘rarest of rare’– the standard without which the death penalty cannot be invoked, the report said. “It was after he saw Pallavi in scanty clothes that he was sexually excited and it was at that time that he thought to ravish her. It cannot be said that he had pre-planned it,” the report says quoting the 141-page judgment. Meanwhile  The Indian Express reported that Pathan pleaded with the court to reduce his sentence, but the court refused saying he had been handed the minimum punishment for his offences, and observed in its judgment that laughing after murdering someone “is something abnormal”. “Hours after killing Purkayastha, Mughal had called up two of his friends and  boasted about the incident and when questioned about who he had killed, Mughal laughed and disconnected the call, according to the statements of  two of his friends,” the report said. Purkayastha’s murder on 9 August, 2012 had shocked Mumbai. According to the prosecution’s case, Pathan was reportedly ticked off at her for rebuking him on a previous occasion. He tripped electricity to her flat and entered when she called for help. He took the keys to her flat from a bowl by the entrance door and then let himself in later, attempting to rape her and then stabbing her fatally when she resisted. Her body was found by her boyfriend Avik Sengupta, who also died of an illness in November last year.