Mumbai: The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court commuted the father-son duo’s death sentence to life imprisonment and acquitted the mother of murder charges. The court disapproved of the reasoning of the sessions court reproducing some crime data regarding the state of Maharashtra from the last 10 years, noting that in criminal trials each case has its own features and distinctions.

The HC was hearing a plea filed by the state of Maharashtra seeking confirmation of the death sentence of Haribhau Telgote, his wife Dwarkabai and son Shyam alias Kundan. A death sentence cannot be carried out until it is confirmed by the HC. The trio also filed an appeal challenging their conviction and sentence.

The three were sentenced to death by the sessions court on May 17 this year for killing four relatives over a land dispute.

There was a land dispute between Dwarkabai and her brothers. On June 28, 2015, Dwarkabai was sowing cotton seeds on the disputed land when her brother Dhanraj objected. An argument ensued and Dwarkabai accused Dhanraj’s son Shubham of misbehaving. She called Haribhau, Shyam and another relative, Mangesh, who then came armed and attacked Shubham. When Dhanraj, his other son Gaurav and another brother Baburao intervened, they were also killed.

A bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Abhay Mantri expressed displeasure with the trial court’s rationale for awarding the death penalty, particularly its basis on Mahabharata verses and crime statistics. “The reasoning assigned by the trial court for awarding capital punishment is quite strange,” the judges said, adding: “The trial court quoted a verse from the Mahabharata, which we feel is an unwarranted exercise.”

The bench also highlighted the statistics of 23,222 murders in Maharashtra in the last decade, with 19 cases involving four murders in a single incident, terming it the “rarest of the rare”.

However, the High Court considered this approach “erroneous”, stating: “The Court must assess the case strictly on the facts of the case and not be swayed by statistics and the number of similar cases”. The bench observed that the murders were not premeditated but were triggered by a spur-of-the-moment altercation when Dwarkabai was allegedly ill-treated. The assault began as retaliation, only escalating when others tried to intervene.

The court noted that Dwarkabai neither wielded a weapon nor directly participated in the murders; her involvement was limited to calling the others. Thus, she was acquitted of all charges.

The judges further emphasized the absence of premeditation or motive to kill, noting that the incident did not involve “brutal killing of defenseless or vulnerable sections of society”.

Considering the scope for reform, the court commuted the death sentences of Haribhau and Shyam to life terms of 14 and 30 years respectively. The HC also reduced the amount of fine imposed on the father-son couple from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10,000.