Mumbai: The high-profile attempted rape and murder of 25-year-old corporate lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in 2012 was not a “rarest of rare” case and the perpetrator does not deserve the death sentence, the Bombay High Court held on Monday.
The division bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Neela K Gokhale dismissed two petitions by the Maharashtra government and Atanu Purkayastha – Pallavi’s father and a retired IAS officer – seeking enhancement of the life sentence awarded to Sajjad Ahmed Abdul Aziz Mughal alias Sajjad Pathan to death.
The court also dismissed an appeal by Pathan, seeking acquittal in the matter.
Pathan was a security guard at the building in Wadala, Mumbai, where Pallavi lived. Investigation revealed that Pathan deliberately cut off the power supply to Pallavi’s flat sometime before the murder, following which she had to call an electrician to get it restored. Pathan entered the flat with the electrician and later attempted to rape Pallavi. On facing resistance, the security guard stabbed her, killing her on the spot.
He was arrested from the Mumbai Central railway station after the body was discovered. Pathan was planning to travel to Surat from where he wanted to go to his native state, Jammu and Kashmir.
In July 2014, a sessions court in Mumbai convicted him for offences punishable under Sections 302 (murder), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced Pathan to life imprisonment.
The prosecution prayed for the death penalty, but the court refused, saying that the case was not “rarest of rare”.
After the conviction, the Maharashtra government approached the Bombay High Court, seeking the death penalty for Pathan. Pallavi’s father also filed a criminal revision application before the High Court, claiming that the sentence awarded by the sessions court was not proportionate to the “heinousness of the gruesome murder”.
The High Court concluded the hearing aand closed the matter for awards on August 14, which it pronounced on Monday.
Pathan violated parole in March 2016, after he was released to meet his ailing mother. It took the Mumbai Police 19 months to trace him to Jammu and Kashmir and send him back to prison.
