Summary
The appellant’s acid attack killed a woman and injured her relatives. The dying declaration, reliable injured eyewitnesses, recovery and fingerprint evidence sustained conviction. The Court nevertheless found no special reasons foreclosing life imprisonment. The earlier murder conviction, during whose bail the attack occurred, was considered but the unrelated incidents disclosed no relevant pattern on these facts. Death was replaced by life imprisonment without disturbing the other convictions and sentences.
Issues
- Whether the dying declaration and corroborating evidence sustained conviction for the acid attack.
- Whether the circumstances, including an earlier murder conviction, justified death as the exceptional sentence.
Provisions considered
- Section 354(3), Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973The Court applied the requirement of special reasons and the rarest-of-rare standard, concluding that life imprisonment was not foreclosed. (¶¶ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
Held
- The conscious victim’s dying declaration reliably identified the appellant. Consistent evidence from injured relatives and the father, together with recovery and matching fingerprints, established guilt beyond reasonable doubt. It was unnecessary to decide admissibility of the surviving injured person’s purported dying declaration because he testified. (¶¶ 5, 6, 7)
- The earlier murder conviction and commission of this offence while on bail were relevant aggravating facts, but the Court assessed the particular offence and found the earlier incident unrelated and no relevant pattern established. Those circumstances did not mandate death here. (¶ 8)
- On its assessment of this attack, the Court considered it possible that severe injury or disfigurement rather than death had been premeditated. The sentencing observation did not excuse the conduct or undo the murder conviction; it bore on whether special reasons for death were established. (¶¶ 9, 10)
- Mitigating circumstances require liberal consideration, life imprisonment remains the rule, and death is reserved for cases where the alternative is unquestionably foreclosed. The Court found the threshold unmet and substituted life imprisonment. (¶¶ 10, 11, 12)
Result
Appeals allowed to the extent of setting aside the death sentence and substituting imprisonment for life. Conviction otherwise remained undisturbed.