Lawyers say kidnapping with the sole intent to kill fits the rarest-of-rare category.
Lawyers say kidnapping with the sole intent to kill fits the rarest-of-rare category.
NEW DELHI: The immediate concern of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren — convicted of masterminding the abduction and murder of erstwhile confidant Shashinath Jha — is to evade the gallows.
Jha apparently knew about a 1993 deal in which Rs3.5 crore was paid to Soren in exchange for ensuring four JMM MPs’ votes against a no-confidence motion faced by the Narasimha Rao government.
Today, Soren’s lawyers will have to present a credible list of mitigating factors to secure the best possible reprieve in the circumstances: life imprisonment.
Soren was sacked from the Union cabinet as coal minister following his conviction. The 62-year-old, also known as ‘Guruji’, complained of chest pain after the conviction order and was taken to Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences for tests.
A senior lawyer, who has been close to Soren for many years, did not rule out the possibility of Judge Kedia awarding the extreme penalty in this case.
“The court could consider death penalty as the accused had kidnapped a person with the sole motive of eliminating him,” the lawyer said.
Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer opposed to the death sentence in any circumstance, also conceded the possibility of capital punishment being handed out to Soren. Bhushan said kidnapping with the sole motive to murder could be viewed as a ‘rarest of rare’ case.
Another senior criminal law advocate agreed and said that because the person killed was under the dominance of the persons who had kidnapped him as a part of conspiracy to murder, Soren could battle for life on Thursday.
In a 4:1 judgment upholding the validity of the death sentence, a bench headed by then Chief Justice of India YV Chandrachud had said that “death penalty is not a rule but an exception”.
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