INDIA. SC COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE, CITES ENMITY

India’s Supreme Court found two brothers guilty of beheading their brother-in-law, suspecting him to have murdered their sister. However, on sentencing, it differed from the trial court, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had imposed the death penalty. The bench commuted the death sentence handed down to the two to life imprisonment, arguing that enmity on account of their sister's death could have been the provocation for the crime.
Sukhwinder Kaur, sister of accused Major Singh and Baldev Singh, was married to Kashmir Singh in 1987. She died in 1989 and the accused suspected that their brother-in-law had murdered her.
Nearly 10 years after her death, on January 24, 1999, the two brothers found Kashmir Singh on a lonely road near Behak Pachharian village. They chased him to a nearby field and severed his head by inflicting blows with swords.