New Delhi / Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted a parole of seven days to a person from Pune awaiting capital punishment for murders in 1994 to enable him to attend the last rites of his father who died on May 10.
Narayan Chegtanram Chaudhary was sentenced to death along with his accomplice Jitendra Gehlot for murder of five women, including one pregnant woman, and two small babies and the death sentence was even confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2000.
He is, however, in the Apex Court to plead for reversal of his sentence on the ground that he was a juvenile at the time of committing the crimes.
The vacation bench of Justices Ms Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna directed the police authorities to ensure Narayan does not abscond or escape by providing police escorts to keep watch on him during his parole. The case relates to his claim that he cannot be sentenced to death since he was not adult at the time of the crimes.
The Bench noted that prima facie, Narayan was 12 years and six months on 24.08.1994 as per the report received from the principal district and sessions judge which means he was a juvenile on the date of offence and the capital punishment can never be imposed on a juvenile. While keeping pending “the issue of whether the petitioner was a child on the date of the alleged offence” to be finally decided, the Court decided to grant him the parole.
After 15 years of dismissal of his review petition, Narayan moved the Apex Court to reopen it to declare him as a juvenile at the time of commission of offence. When his matter was listed last January, the Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee asked the principal district and sessions judge, Pune to decide his juvenility.
The report from Pune surprised the Bench on Thursday that Narayan was only 12 years and six months at the time of committing the crimes and could not have been sentenced to death. The High Court had, however, recorded in its judgment that Narayan”s counsel gave age of both the accused as about 20 to 22.
While confirming the death sentence in 2000, the Apex Court had observed that the accused did not deserve any sympathy from the law and society as they had become beasts and menace to the society. The whole case will, however, change if Narayan is found out to be a juvenile at the time of committing the crimes.
