Supreme Court commutes death sentence of watchman who killed employer

The Supreme Court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of a convict and ex-watchman who had killed his employers in 2007 [Shivkumar Ramsundar Saket and ors vs State of Maharashtra]

A Bench of Justices BR Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan set aside a Bombay High Court verdict and restored the trial court's verdict imposing life sentence, after noting that other accused had been handed down only life term and not capital punishment.

"Unless the finding recorded by the trial court was found to be perverse or impossible, the high court ought not to have interfered with the same ... In any case the role played by the (present) accused is similar with all the other accused ... (he) could not have been segregated from the other accused to impose the separate penalty", it observed.

The Bench added that the Bombay High Court was not justified in imposing death penalty when the trial court had held that the case did not fall into the 'rarest of rare category'.

The Bombay High Court at Aurangabad had in April 2022 awarded death penalty to watchman Shivkumar Saket, who along with his friends executed a "well calculated plan" to kill his employer and his wife after committing dacoity.

Saket used to work day shift at the bungalow of the deceased businessman and his wife.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud had in November that year stayed the execution of the watchman.

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, Saket 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 stabbed on his chest killing him on the spot.

A sessions court in Ahmednagar eventually held that the offence does not pass the "rarest of rare" test, and and accordingly granted life term to all the accused.

The Bombay High Court noted that the accused executed the plan in a calculated manner and it cannot be said that their actions were solely because the victims had resisted dacoity.

The watchman had betrayed the trust of his employer and deserved no sympathy, it underscored.

It, therefore, enhanced the sentence as regards watchman and sentenced him to death. The life imprisonment awarded by trial court to other convicts was upheld.

This led to the appeal before the apex court.

The Supreme Court today dismissed the appeals filed by the other accused, and modified the capital punishment sentence of the former watchman to life imprisonment.

Before the apex court, Senior Advocate Sadhana Jadhav with advocate Amit Agrawal appeared for Saket briefed by a team from anti-death penalty advocacy organisation Project 39A, led by advocates Bhavesh Seth and Sakshi Jain.

Senior Advocate Sudhanshu S Choudhari with advocate Vatsalya Vigya appeared for a convict who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Advocates Shrirang B Varma, Varad Kilor and Aaditya Aniruddha Pande appeared for the State of Maharashtra.

Advocate Christi Jain appeared for a convict who had since passed away.