9-Jul-2013ALLAHABAD : The Allahabad High Court on Monday commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, awarded to three persons, including a woman, in connection with the murder of a 70-year-old woman in their house in Chandauli district in 2005. The accused - brothers Ram Ashish and Ram Dheeraj, and their mother, Mangari Devi - had allegedly killed the woman in the hope that one of them (Ashish) would get cured of his mental illness, if they "sacrificed" a Brahmin. The three were awarded death sentence by the trial court in October 2012. Passing the order on their appeal against the death sentence, a division bench of Justices Amar Saran and Bachchoo Lal said that although the prosecution established the complicity of the accused in the crime, the case did not fall in the category of the rarest of the rare and, therefore, it was being commuted to life imprisonment. The court said: "The present case cannot be regarded a case of such extreme brutality, as there was no decapitation of the head of the deceased, but at the highest on the prosecution allegations the deceased appears to have been belaboured with some blunt objects to free the accused, Ashish, from the spirit, which had afflicted him and for restoring his sanity. There was no forcible abduction or quest for any financial gain." The incident had taken place in Sisaura village in Dheena area of Chandauli district on June 18, 2005. Dheeraj had sent their mother Mangari to the house of Rajkumari, mother of Onkarnath Tiwari, asking her to come over to their house in connection with a ritual. Rajkumari, who was battered with a wooden plank, was found dead in their house late that evening. Initially, the accused had claimed that she had fallen off stairs resulting in her death. Investigations revealed that Ashish, who had earlier gone to Punjab in connectio n with work, had returned to the village and would roam around saying that he is often possessed by Goddess Durga. Dheeraj was apparently told by some men in the village that his brother could be cured, if a Brahmin woman was sacrificed. The exact role of those men, however, could not be established. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-commutes-death-sentence-of-three-to-life/1139447/0 -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
