Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday commuted to 30 years’ life imprisonment the death sentences of two men convicted in the 2013 kidnapping and murder of a Nashik district man aged 22. The HC bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande granted the relief to Chetan Pagare and Aman Jat, aged 25 and 22 when the crime was registered. The duo appealed a Dec 2022 conviction verdict of the Nashik special trial court judge Aditee Kadam. The trial court acquitted three others in the case where the victim set off for a dance class 13 years ago, never to return. His father received a ransom call the next day, and five days later his body was found in a field.The trial of five accused was for kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code, along with provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).The state, as mandated by law, made a reference to the HC for confirmation of the death sentence before it could be executable. The law requires the trial court-awarded sentence of death to be confirmed by the HC in cases of murder before execution can be contemplated.“The appeal (against conviction and death penalty) is partly allowed by confirming the finding of conviction but commuting the sentence to life imprisonment for a period of 30 years. Confirmation case filed by the state is dismissed, the two appeals (against conviction) are partly allowed,” the HC said in its judgment.
