UP judge hands down 22 deaths in four months
In the last four months, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar has delivered verdicts in 10 cases, resulting in 22 individuals being sentenced to death. Government lawyer Kuldeep Kumar told PTI on Monday that three individuals were sentenced to death in the lawyer Sameer Safi murder case on April 6, 2026.
Four people were sentenced to death on April 28, one on May 20, and two on June 20. In July, one received a death sentence on July 2, two on July 6, and four on July 17. In August, one person was sentenced to death on August 12, and four more on August 13.
Kumar stated that all 22 individuals convicted in these 10 cases were sentenced to death over the last four months. The offences included the murder of a lawyer, the murder of a home guard, highway robbery, and other murder cases.
On August 12, the court sentenced a man to death for the abduction and murder of a wood trader for ransom nearly 27 years ago. The convict, Shahnawaz, was fined 1.10 lakh after being found guilty of the abduction and murder of Saleem in 1999. On August 13, a fast-track court in Muzaffarnagar handed down death sentences to four individuals in a 12-year-old murder case.
Judge Diwakar also imposed a fine of `1.70 lakh on the convicts, Ramvir, Rajiv, Rahul, and Harender Kumar, after they were found guilty of murdering Pawan Kumar.
The accused had entered Pawan’s house and opened fire due to an old enmity, in an incident that occurred in Bhabhisa village in Shamli district on July 14, 2014.
Pawan was killed in the firing, while his brother Ashok Kumar sustained bullet injuries. Ashok had filed the complaint regarding the incident.
