Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court Wednesday commuted the death sentence of a man to life imprisonment in a double murder case of 2019, saying that ‘it is well settled law that the possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the convict is an important factor which has to be taken into account as a mitigating circumstance before sentencing him to death’. A division bench of Justices BP Routray and Chittaranjan Dash, taking note of the positive report of the jail authorities regarding the convict, Niranjan Mallik, in death row, commuted the capital punishment awarded by a lower court to life term. “Taking into consideration the report of the jail authority in entirety, it cannot be said that there is no possibility of the convict being reformed and rehabilitated, foreclosing the alternative of a lesser sentence,” the bench observed. “We are therefore inclined to convert the sentence imposed on the appellant (convict) from death to life, but taking note of the severity of the offences including murder of two persons, we are of the view that the convict deserves life imprisonment for the rest of his life,” the division bench ordered in the judgment.
According to the case details, Niranjan killed a night watchman, Lochan Sethi, and a 70-year-old woman, Badani Pradhan, at her house in Odagaon of Nayagarh district late January 16, 2019, over past enmity. “Three other persons, including Pradhan’s daughter, also sustained grievous injuries in the attack,” according to the prosecution. “Niranjan was booked for commission of two murders, one attempt to murder, and two grievous hurts with lurking house trespass.
A court in Nayagarh district, after examining 27 witnesses and 94 documents, had awarded a death sentence to Niranjan April 27, 2024,” it said. “Upon careful examination of the socio-economic background of the convict in the present case, it appears that he hails from the poor economic strata of society without having any criminal antecedent and adverse report against his conduct,” the HC observed. As per the jail authority report submitted before the HC, Niranjan is cordial to others and no one spoke evil of him in his village, his conduct inside the jail is normal and cordial to other inmates, the HC said, adding that nothing on his conduct, as per the report of the jail authority, would constitute an aggravating factor against him to confi rm the death sentence.
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“Regardless of the heinous crime committed by him, his conduct inside jail is quite satisfactory as per the report of the Superintendent of Jail, and he had also no other antecedent than the present one to be counted against him to justify his death sentence,” the division bench stated in the 53-page order.
