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SC rules to let Ram Shri live

Ram Shri, the first woman to be sentenced to death in independent India, will not go to the gallows.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court commuted the 48-year-old convict's punishment to life imprisonment.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice M M Punchhi, Justices K T Thomas and S S M Quadri also commuted to life imprisonment the capital sentence, awarded by a trial court and confirmed by the Allahabad high court, to three other members of Ram Shri's family.

Ram Shri, her father Panchhi, brother Manmohan and mother Pan Kanwar, from a village in Uttar Pradesh's Mohoba district, have been charged with the murder of four members of a family.

The National Commission for Women, which took up Ram Shri's case, pleaded that since she had a three-year-old child she should be spared of capital punishment.

In its judgement, the SC bench said that it confirmed the conviction of the four accused. "But as regards the award of capital punishment is concerned, we have considered the pros and cons and we are of the opinion that in spite of the brutality involved in the case, it could not be categorised as the 'rarest of rare' cases as laid down by this court in the Bachan Singh's case."

The judges said there was no doubt that the intense bitterness between the two rival families and the assault on two the young women of the appellents' family just six days before, provoked the brutal murders.

"After pondering over the various aspects of the case we are persuaded to think that the case does not fall under the category of the 'rarest of rare' cases. Hence we commute the capital sentence awarded to each of the four accused into life imprisonment," the judges observed.

UNI

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