Bombay High Court imposes death penalty on watchman for killing his employer, wife

The Bombay High Court at Aurangabad on Friday awarded death penalty to a watchman, who along with his friends executed a "well calculated plan" to kill his employer and his wife after committing dacoity [Shailendrasingh Thakur & Ors. vs State of Maharashtra]..A bench of Justices Vishawas Jadhav and Shrikant Kulkarni sentenced to death Shivkumar Saket, a resident of Madhay Pradesh, who was the watchman working in the day shift at the deceased businessman's bungalow."The accused persons have committed the crime with premeditation and it involves extreme brutality. They have committed brutal murder of two innocent middle aged persons in a cruel and diabolic manner. They have committed gruesome, brutal murder of two middle aged helpless and hapless persons out of lust for money and ornaments. It was a pre-planned, calculated, cold blooded murder. This crime resulted in public abhorrence and shocked the judicial conscience and the conscience of the society," the Court said..According to prosecution case, on the night of December 2, 2007, Ramesh Munot and his wife Chitra were alone at their bungalow. At that time, one of the accused came to the gate of their bungalow and told the night shift watchman that he wanted to meet the deceased. When the watchman turned to make a call, Shivkumar and other accused hand cuffed him, covered his face with a cloth and tied him to a pole behind the bungalow.Subsequently, five out of six men entered the bungalow and killed the couple. One accused stayed outside the house to give signal to the five co-accused.While Chitra was tied with telephone wire on a chair and her throat was slit, Ramesh was a stab directly into his heart killing him on the spot, yet, the accused made several other stabs on his person including one just above the eye-lid.A sessions court in Ahmednagar after going through the material on record, found that there wasn't any direct evidence to show their complicity in the offence, however, relied upon the test identification parade, seizures on part of the accused and their families and the testimonies of various witnesses who saw the accused near the bungalow prior and post the offence.The trial court also considered the call data record (CDR) of all the accused indicating their location in the bungalow at the relevant time. However, it held that the offence doesn't pass the "rarest of rare" test and accordingly granted life term to all the accused..On appeal, the High Court noted that Shivkumar was employed with the deceased even on the day of offence and had executed the plan in a calculated manner."The accused have committed their brutal murder to conceal their identity and involvement in commission of the crime. However, Shivkumar was serving as the day time watchman at the time of the incident. In our considered opinion, he has well executed the plan in a calculated manner with the help of other accused persons and committed cold blooded murder of the helpless and hapless couple," the bench said.The Court also rejected the argument that the murder was committed only because the victims resisted dacoity. "We are not in agreement with the observations made by the Judge of the trial court in his judgment that the murders of deceased persons were not committed with previous planning and it does not involve extreme brutality. We are also not in agreement with the observations that when the middle aged couple resisted the accused persons while committing dacoity, they were done to death," it was held. The bench also noted how Shivkumar betrayed the trust of his employer. "The aged couple was entirely dependent upon the bungalow security. He was knowing well that the deceased couple was in the bungalow alone and no other family member was present in the night. The crime has been committed under no duress, nor on provocation. On the other hand, two innocent lives were snuffed out," the Court opined.The bench further reasoned that the murders were gruesome and committed with extreme depravity and in a merciless manner and therefore, falls within the category of rarest of rare case. "It falls in the category of rarest of rare case. In our considered opinion, it merits the death penalty to the extent of Shivkumar. In the facts of the present case, his age cannot be considered as a mitigating circumstance," the Court ruled.It, therefore, enhanced the sentence as regards Shivkumar and sentenced him to death. The life imprisonment awarded by trial court to other convicts was upheld..[Read Judgment]