BPO employee rape-murder case: Supreme Court upholds Bombay High Court order commuting convicts’ death penalty to life

New Delhi: An inordinate delay in the execution of a death sentence has a dehumanising effect on the accused, the Supreme Court observed on Monday as it upheld a Bombay High Court order commuting the death penalty of two convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO employee gangrape and murder case to life term for 35 years.

Dismissing the appeal filed by the Maharashtra government challenging the Bombay High Court judgement, a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih said keeping a convict sentenced to death in suspense while considering his mercy petitions by the governor or the president for an inordinately long time is certainly agony for him/her.

"The only conclusion in this case is that the delay is unexplained and inordinate. Therefore, it is impossible to find fault with the view taken by the high court that there was a violation of the rights of the convicts guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"Therefore, the commutation of the death sentence to a fixed term sentence of thirty-five years by the high court cannot be faulted," the bench said.

The top court said undue delay in issuing a warrant of execution can violate the rights of convicts under Article 21 of the Constitution and in this case, there is a delay in three stages.

It said on July 10, 2015, the convicts filed mercy petitions addressed to the Maharashtra governor, which were rejected on March 29, 2016.

"On June 1,1 2016, mercy petitions were addressed by the convicts to the President of India, which were rejected on May 26, 2017. This is the second part of the delay, and the third part of the delay started on June 19, 2017, when the superintendent of prison informed the sessions judge, Pune, about the rejection of mercy petitions by the president.

"Ultimately, it was only on April 10, 2019, that the learned sessions court, Pune, issued the warrants for the execution of the death sentence," the bench said.

Thus, from July 10, 2015, till April 10, 2019, time was consumed in deciding the mercy petitions filed before the governor and the president, and in issuing warrants for executing the death sentence, it added.

The convicts -- Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade -- were to be executed on June 24, 2019, but the high court said on June 21, 2019, the execution should not take place until further orders. The high court on July 29, 2019, allowed the convicts' petitions to stay the execution of their death warrant.

In its judgement, the top court said, the executive must promptly deal with the mercy petitions filed by the convicts of the death sentence.

"In this case, the approach of the executive, and especially the state government, has been casual and negligent. Even the sessions court ought to have been pro-active.

"When the delay from the date of filing of mercy petitions till the date of issue of a warrant of execution is inordinate and unexplained, the right of the convicts guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution is violated. This right must be upheld, and it is the duty of the Constitutional Courts to do so," the bench said.

On November 1, 2007, a Wipro BPO employee, who was then 22 years old, got into the regular cab contracted by the company to report for her night duty in a Pune suburb.

Cab driver Borate, accompanied by his friend Kokade, changed the route and took her to a remote place, where they raped her and strangled her with her 'dupatta'. They also disfigured her face.

The duo was convicted and awarded death penalty by a sessions court in March 2012 for kidnapping, raping and murdering the woman. In September 2012, the high court confirmed the punishment and the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2015.