INDIA: SUPREME COURT COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY CITING CONVICT’S MENTAL STATE

The Supreme Court on 5 March 2020 commuted the death sentence of a man who murdered three children aged between eight and four, concluding that he was suffering from “extreme mental disturbance” at the time of the “abominable crime”.
A three-judge Bench of Justices U.U. Lalit, Indira Banerjee and M.R. Shah said the convict was motivated by revenge. He was unable to bear the blow of his wife’s elopement with the children’s uncle. However, the top court, sentencing him to life imprisonment, said he would not be eligible for remission for the next 25 years.
The crime occurred in 2011 in Chhattisgarh. The children went missing while walking home from school. One of the witnesses told the father that they were last seen with Manoj Suryavanshi. The trial court had sentenced him to death on the same day he was convicted of the crime.
“The accused was emotionally disturbed due to the elopement of his wife with the uncle of the deceased children and that his children were suffering in the absence of their mother...” Justice Shah observed.