The Calcutta High Court has commuted the death sentence of an Andhra Pradesh couple, Sk Hasina Sultana, 34, and Sk Vannur Sha, 37, to life imprisonment without remission for 40 years in the brutal murder of a one-year-old child. The division bench, led by Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi, upheld their conviction but ruled the case did not meet the “rarest of rare” threshold for the death penalty, citing the couple’s lack of prior criminal history and potential for reformation.
The couple was convicted for the January 2016 murder of Hasina’s child, born out of wedlock, in Secunderabad. The prosecution detailed how the toddler, suffering from fever, was beaten by the couple after causing disturbances that angered their Hyderabad landlord. After the child’s death, Sha packed the body in a bag and abandoned it on the Howrah-bound Falaknuma Express, where it was discovered with bruise marks at Howrah railway station on January 24, 2016, triggering a murder investigation.
The court dismissed the couple’s objection to the Howrah court’s jurisdiction, affirming that the case was triable in West Bengal under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, as the body was found there. The bench upheld the fast-track court’s February 27, 2024, conviction under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, finding no grounds to challenge the evidence.
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Hasina’s mother had reported her and the child missing from Tenali, Andhra Pradesh, on December 22, 2015, leading to a lookout notice. West Bengal Police later arrested Hasina at her mother’s home, where she confessed to marrying Sha and the events leading to the child’s death. Social media posts on X, including from @TelanganaToday, noted the ruling’s significance, with users like @JusticeNow expressing mixed reactions over the commutation given the crime’s brutality.
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