The Bombay high court on Friday commuted the death sentence awarded to Ramchandra Karanjule, convicted for killing an inmate and gang-raping five mentally challenged girls in the premises of a Navi Mu
The Bombay high court on Friday commuted the death sentence awarded to Ramchandra Karanjule, convicted for killing an inmate and gang-raping five mentally challenged girls in the premises of a Navi Mumbai orphanage run by him and his associates.
A division bench of Justice R.V. More and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai partly allowed the appeal filed by Mr Ramchandra while hearing his appeal against their conviction and the state’s appeal to confirm death sentence awarded to Karanjule and others. The court however upheld Mr Ramchandra’s conviction for rape and sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000.
The court was hearing appeals filed by six accused, who had been convicted by the sessions court in March 2013 on charges of murder of an inmate and gang-rape of five other girls, three of whom were minors, in an orphanage run by “Kalyani Mahila Bal Seva Sanstha” at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai. Apart from Mr Ramchandra, the high court also convicted Nanabhau Karanjule, Khandu Kasbe, Sonali Badade (Orphanage Superintendent), and Parvati Mavale (Caretaker).
While Mr Kasbe was convicted for rape and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, Ms Badade was acquitted from the charge of attempt to murder but held guilty of causing hurt and sentenced to one-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs 2,000. Ms Mavale too was held guilty of causing hurt and sentenced to one-year imprisonment.
Defence lawyers Niranjan Mundergi, Mahesh Vaswani and Apeksha Vora had contended before the court that the sessions court’s order was bad in law and without application of mind.
They claimed that the trial judge failed to appreciate the defence put forth by them. They claimed that the trial court placed heavy reliance on the testimony of the complainant in the case which was not corroborated with any other evidence by the prosecution.
The police had recorded statements of 19 victims but only three could come to court to record their evidence. The bench told defence that the detailed judgement copy would be made available to them next week.
