NEW DELHI:The Supreme Court upheld the life sentences awarded to two persons for killing a Muslim man after the latter converted two Hindu girls to Islam despite being warned not ot do so and later got married to them in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu
A bench, comprising Justices F M I Kalifulla and U U Lalit, upheld the sentences awarded by the Madras HC to Kamal and Vishwanathan for stabbing to death Sultan Meeran in 2002.
“In our considered view, this is not a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The assault was deliberate and designed to achieve the death of Sultan. The lower courts were therefore justified in convicting and sentencing the appellants,” the bench said.
The court was hearing appeals filed by convicts against the verdict of the Madras HC, which had confirmed the life sentences handed to them by the trial court.
The trial court, in 2003, convicted the appellants under Sec 302 (murder) of the IPC besides imposing a fine of `10,000, while relying on the prosecution’s theory that conversion was the motive for the killing. The convicts had threatened Sultan that his act was endangering the Hindu religion and that if he continued such conversions then his life is in danger. A month after being threatened, Sultan converted another Hindu girl to Islam and married her as well. Enraged over the conversion, Kamal and his friend stabbed Sultan to death after he came out of a snooker club.