Bombay High Court Commutes Death Sentence of Two Men to 30 Years in Kidnap-Murder Case
The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence of two men, Chetan Pagare and Aman Jat, to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment without remission for the kidnapping and murder of a 22-year-old engineering student in Nashik in 2013. The court ruled that the case does not fall within the 'rarest of rare' category that warrants capital punishment.
A Division Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande observed that while the act of kidnapping and killing the victim was abhorrent, it did not meet the threshold for the death penalty. The convicts, aged 25 and 22 at the time of the offence, had conspired to abduct the victim for a ransom of ₹1 crore.
According to the 71-page judgment pronounced on June 25, the accused made two ransom calls to the victim's family. When these failed, the judges noted, the men became 'baffled' about their next move and decided to kill the victim to avoid being exposed for kidnapping. The body was later disposed of at an isolated location.
The court noted that the accused had some criminal cases registered against them but had not been convicted in any. They were also not professional killers. The Bench emphasised that while punishment must deter crime, the proportionality test must apply when considering the death penalty. The court concluded that preplanning and cruelty alone were insufficient to classify the case as 'rarest of rare'.
Previously, a special court in Nashik had sentenced Pagare and Jat to death in December 2022. The case dates to June 8, 2013, when the victim, Vipin Bafna, left home for a dance class and did not return. His family filed a missing person complaint after he failed to return the next morning. Investigation revealed that Pagare and Jat had kidnapped him for ransom and killed him when the demand was not met.
