The Calcutta High Court has commuted the death sentence of a couple from Andhra Pradesh, Sk Hasina Sultana and Sk Vannur Sha, to life imprisonment for the murder of a one-year-old child. The court specified that the couple must serve a minimum of 40 years without any remission.
A division bench, presided over by Justice Debangsu Basak and also comprising Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi, made the ruling. It held that the objections raised by the appellants' defence regarding the territorial jurisdiction of the court in Howrah, West Bengal, to try the case had "no legs to stand".
Affirming the conviction of the two by the fast track court at Howrah on February 27, 2024, the bench said that it finds no substance to interfere with its findings in so far as it relates to the conviction of the appellants for the offences punishable under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court decided that the case did not fall into the "rarest of rare" category, which is the benchmark for a death penalty. "Various pronouncement by Hon’ble Supreme Court has laid down that death penalty should be resorted to in exceptional circumstances where the court awarding the sentence is able to return a finding that the case fell within the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’ and the possibility of reformation of the convict stood foreclosed," the bench said.
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Commuting the sentence, the division bench noted that Vannur Sha is aged about 37 years and Hasina Sultana is 34 years of age, and they do not have any criminal antecedent.
The prosecution’s case was that the couple murdered the child in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. They then allegedly packed the body in a bag and placed it in the general compartment of the Howrah-bound Falaknuma Express in January 2016. The bag, containing the child’s body with bruise marks, was discovered at Howrah railway station on January 24, 2016, which led to the initiation of a murder case.
According to the prosecution’s version of events, a lookout notice had been issued for Hasina and her child after she went missing from her mother's home in Andhra Pradesh on December 22, 2015. She was later arrested by West Bengal Police from her mother's house. During interrogation, she confessed that she had married Vannur Sha and was living with him in a rented accommodation in Hyderabad.
The court was told that the child was born to Hasina from a previous relationship, and she had been living with her mother after that relationship soured. The prosecution claimed that the child used to cry and create a commotion, for which their Hyderabad landlord had registered their protest. Owing to this, the couple would also allegedly beat the child. One day, after being assaulted and given some medicine for a fever, the child turned cold and died. The prosecution said that Vannur Sha then packed the body into a bag and put it on the train.
The Calcutta High Court division bench took all these facts into consideration and issued a verdict commutting the death penalty to life imprisonment. The court made it clear that the life sentence would translate to imprisonment for not less than 40 years from the time of their arrest. The verdict serves as a harsh alternative to the capital punishment but still serves as an effective penalty for the brutal crime.
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