KOCHI : While mitigation investigation even before conviction is upheld in death penalty cases has been widely hailed as a landmark step, the same could not come to the rescue of Muhammed Ameer-Ul-Islam who raped and murdered Jisha in 2016.
A Division Bench recently commuted the death sentence awarded by the Kottayam district and sessions judge to Narendra Kumar, a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh, in the 2015 Prambuzha triple murder case to life imprisonment without remission for 20 years after examining the report obtained through a mitigation study.
However, in the Jisha murder case, the Division Bench comprising Justice P B Suresh Kumar and Justice S Manu said that mitigating circumstances are not sufficient to commute a death sentence to imprisonment for life. “There are no mitigating circumstances that favour the accused,” their judgement stated.
The court said the victim had continually resisted the accused’s rape attempts.
“It was a cold-blooded murder without provocation, for the only sin committed by the victim was that she resisted the attempt of the accused to commit rape on her. As indicated, the crime committed is in the nature of extreme brutality, that shocks conscience of society,” the Bench said.
Nuriya Ansari, associated with Project 39A at the National Law University, Delhi, who carried out the mitigating investigation on Ameer-Ul-Islam, informed the court: “If given the chance, he also has a chance to reintegrate into society.”
Ameer, who had no previous criminal antecedents nor his family any legal history, was only 21 when he was arrested and incarcerated, and his young age and engagement in prison work gives an assurance of his smooth reintegration into society, Ansari told the court.
“His lack of criminal record reflects having no history of unstable behaviour, which is further supported by the prison conduct report,” the investigator said.
The court said, according to the investigator, the poor and inadequate legal representation is one of the factors which would show that the accused is not extremely culpable.
“Having regard to the manner in which the case was defended by the counsel for the accused, as evident from the records of the case, it cannot be said that the legal aid extended to the accused was poor and inadequate. From the materials, what is discernable is that the accused was well defended in the case. Be that as it may, we fail to understand as to how poor and inadequate legal representation could be named as a factor reflecting the culpability of the accused,” the Bench said.
The other factors cited by the investigator to show that the accused is not extremely culpable are -- want of criminal antecedents, socioeconomic background, young age and adverse childhood experiences.
The investigator said continued family and societal support, and work undertaken in prison are factors that would show the smooth reintegration of the accused. However, the Bench said these factors have not been accepted as sufficient factors to commute a death sentence to imprisonment for life.
According to the prosecution, Jisha studied up to LLB despite coming from a poor family. She was living with her mother, who worked as a casual labourer. Her house was made of unpolished bricks and roofed with asbestos sheet, located on the side of an irrigation canal owned by the government.
While she was alone at her residence, the accused barged into her residence fully drunk, with a bottle of liquor and a knife to commit sexual assault and eventually ended up murdering her.
After the murder, Ameer-Ul-Islam escaped to his home state, Assam, by train from the Aluva railway station.
While on the train, he threw away the bloodstained clothes worn by him at the time and thereby destroyed one of the pieces of evidence connected with the crime.
‘With a heavy heart’
Justice P B Suresh Kumar and Justice S Manu said it was with a heavy heart that they were upholding the ultimate penalty of death sentence. “We hope and fervently believe that this judgment would serve as a resolute deterrent to those who would consider perpetrating such abhorrent acts in future, so that persons similarly placed like the victim, who are innumerable in our society, would live with a sense of security and without fear,” the judgment stated