Cuttack: Orissa high court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Sanjeet Dash, convicted of murdering his wife and attacking their six-year-old daughter, to life imprisonment with a minimum 35-year custody period, while also ordering an additional compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for his two minor daughters.A division bench of Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak and Justice Sashikanta Mishra, hearing the death reference made by the state for confirmation of capital punishment, held that the crime, though “extremely barbaric, brutal” and showing a “heightened sense of depravity”, did not qualify as a “rarest of rare” case warranting death penalty.The bench observed that the trial court had apparently been influenced by moral and emotional considerations. “Law moves on hard facts alone,” the HC said, stressing that sentencing requires a proper balancing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.Dash was convicted by the 2nd additional sessions judge, Bhubaneswar, on Aug 1, 2024, and sentenced to death for killing his wife Saraswati Dash at their Ghatikia residence under Bharatpur police station limits on June 9, 2022. According to the prosecution, Dash assaulted his wife with a knife and slit the throat of their six-year-old daughter, who survived. The post-mortem report recorded 49 stab injuries on Saraswati’s body.
