INDIA: HC SETS ASIDE DEATH PENALTY, ACQUITS MAN

domestic help Sandeep Maingade, 31, was acquitted by a division bench of justice BH Marlapalle and justice Abhay Thipsay of the Bombay high court in India. The court ruled that his conviction was based on circumstantial evidence only. He was sentenced to death by a sessions court on May 6, 2009, for setting his elderly employers Dilip Randheri, 72, and his wife Varsha, 61, ablaze in Santa Cruz on February 15, 2008. His allegedly murdered the couple because he injured Dilip after an argument and was worried the police would be called.