HC commutes death to life in prison

Bhopal/Jabalpur: A division bench of MP high court has commuted the death sentence awarded to three persons by the district sessions court to life imprisonment till death for killing a couple and carrying out a murderous attack on three other members of their family. According to prosecution, Golu Kushwaha, a resident of Sai Colony under Gorakhpur police station in Jabalpur, had a dispute with his neighbour Vinay Kushwaha over release of sewage water from the drain in front of their houses. Golu was having food at his residence on July 14, 2021 when Vinay Kushwaha, Ravi Kushwaha and Raja Kushwaha barged into his house after jumping the boundary wall and attacked his wife Ruchi with a knife. They also attacked Golu and his son Prateek. When his wife Pushpraj and his wife Neelam tried to intervene, they attacked them too with knife and lathis and escaped from the site. The persons assaulted were taken to the hospital, where Pushpraj and his wife were declared brought dead. Police registered a case of murder, attempt to murder and other charges against the accused. The sessions court had sentenced the three accused to death holding their act as cruel and crime as rarest of the rare. The case was referred to MP high court for confirmation of the death sentence. The convicts had also appealed against the order of the trial court.During hearing of the case, the division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice B K Dwivedi found that the age of the convicts was 35, 24 and 23 years only. They had planned to attack their neighbours and had shown no repentance for their ghastly crime. But at the same time they had not committed the crime to spread terror in society at large.