Maharashtra denies there’s ‘inordinate delay’ in deciding death penalty for Pune duo

MUMBAI: The Union of India and Maharashtra government on Wednesday denied before

Bombay high court

that there was “inordinate delay” in taking a decision on

death penalty

of two convicts in the 2007 Pune

BPO

employee gang-rape and murder case.

Purushottam Borate (38) and Pradeep Kokade (32), scheduled to be executed on June 24, claimed the “inordinate delay” in executing them violated their fundamental rights and urged the high court to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment. A division bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Swapna Joshi will continue to hear the case on Thursday.

“Mere delay is not grounds to commute the death sentence,” advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the court. “There has to be an ‘inordinate’, ‘unexplained’ and ‘unreasonable delay’ in executing the death penalty. None of these three grounds is present in the case,” said Kumbhakoni, who along with additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai is representing the state

Borate and Kokade were sentenced to death for raping and murdering a 22-year-old woman employee of a BPO company in Pune. Bombay high court confirmed the death sentence in September 2012, and the verdict was upheld by Supreme Court in May 2015. The Governor of Maharashtra rejected their mercy petitions in April 2016 and the President of India in May 2017. On April 10, 2019, a Pune sessions court had issued warrants setting their date of execution as June 24.

Advocate Yug Chaudhry, counsel for the petitioners, said there was a four-year delay in executing the death penalty after the SC verdict. The advocate said the delay violated the fundamental right of the prisoners who suffered mental trauma not knowing if they would live to see another day.

In the affidavit submitted by additional solicitor-general Anil Singh, Union home ministry said the mercy petitions were decided “without there being delay and after considering all relevant considerations such as the (convicts’) age, background, role in the offence”. The state denied any delay. “It is unequivocally stated that the state home department pursued every course of action available and there had not been any delay much less deliberate or inordinate delay in intimating the (convicts) or in forwarding documents to Government of India, or in considering mercy petitions or taking steps towards execution of both,” it stated.