Pallavi Purkayastha’s father Atanu Purkayastha expressed disappointment over the sentencing in his daughter’s murder case on Monday after a local court observed that the crime did not fall under the ‘rarest of rare’ category and sentenced convict Sajjad Mughal to life imprisonment.
“My daughter was a strong girl and put up a brave fight, even as she was stabbed 16 times. If this is not the rarest of the rare case, then which one is IJ” he told reporters later.
Her mother Sumita also expressed anguish on the lifer handed to the 22-year-old security guard and said that they will decide on their future course of action soon.
The parents expressed anguish over the verdict as they expected the death sentence. “The fight does not end here. We will appeal in the Bombay High Court,” they said.
Meanwhile, Judge Joshi summoned Pathan into the the witness box and explained the charges and sentence to him. When Pathan pleaded with the court to reduce the sentence, judge Joshi told him that life sentence was the minimum punishment for murder.
“Considering the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, I am of the opinion that the case does not fall under the ‘rarest of the rare’ category,” Sessions Judge Vrushali Joshi said pronouncing the quantum of punishment.
The court also handed over different punishments to 22-year-old Mughal for molestation and criminal trespass. Mughal was in tears when the verdict was delivered. He requested the court to give him minimum sentence. To this, the judge said, “I am giving you the minimum punishment, while the section provides for capital punishment as the maximum sentence.”
Special Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam dubbed the judgement as a 'strong order'.
“There was no direct evidence in the case and it was entirely based on circumstantial evidence,” Nikam said.
He said the judgement means that Mughal will be required to serve rigorous imprisonment till the remainder of his life.
“We demanded death as the crime was committed after previous planning and brutally executed by slitting her throat,” said Nikam adding the court might have considered his young age while awarding the minimum sentence.
Nikam also said that if after going through the order copy, the prosecution feels that the there is any scope of fetching capital punishment for the accused, then they will move the Bombay High Court.
Mughal, who belonged to Jammu and Kashmir, killed Pallavi on the night of August 9, 2012 when she was alone at her flat in suburban Wadala, after he made advances at her which she resisted. Defense lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan said that they will goin for an appeal. “I feel that the court has not considered my arguments properly and hence I will go for an appeal, Khan said. He said that Mughal was not satisfied with the judgement.
Prosecution has examined 40 witnesses while the defence examined three in the case. The Crime Branch had filed a 434-page charge sheet on October 30, 2012 against Mughal charging him with trespass and murder.
Earlier, the prosecution had submitted a draft charge against Mughal, accused of murdering the law graduate, who was also an advisor to filmmaker Farhan Akhtar's firm Excel Entertainment, accusing him of attempting to rape. However, Mughal refuted all the allegations and his lawyer Wahab Khan had argued that it was Pallavi’s fiancee Avik Sengupta who killed her in their flat.