INDIA: HIGH COURT REPRIEVE FOR MOTHER-DAUGHTER DUO

the Bombay High Court in India corrected the sessions judge who awarded the death sentence to the mother-daughter duo in the Dr Deepak Mahajan murder case, saying the judge recorded the evidence like a "tape-recorder" without any interruption and hence, it was not a fair trial. A division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice Ashutosh Kumbhakoni held that the sessions judge was a silent spectator. Leena Devasthali, 51, and Deepti Devasthali, 27, were convicted by the Pune sessions court in 2007 on charges of murdering Mahajan, a Pune-based orthopaedic surgeon, and given capital punishment. The High Court observed that "It is most crucial and pertinent that the judge did not ask even a single question as a court question to any of the witnesses." According to police, Devasthalis, hailing from Mumbai, first sent a letter to Mahajan, on a fake letterhead of the Omkar Charitable Trust sometime in June 2006, requesting him to join as chief orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital the trust was setting up. They were related to him, but used different names in the letter. They also set up a detective agency called Bluebird' in Pune and hired two persons. Dr Mahajan was lured to a hotel room in Pune on June 30, 2006, and he was overpowered with the help of these two employees of detective agency and was administered an anaesthetic drug. Police claimed that the duo then called Mahajan's family and demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh. Unfortunately, Mahajan died because of high does of anesthetic. On July 2, his body was cut into pieces which were disposed of at different places. The accused were convicted on December 27, 2007.