Gujarat HC issues notices to four convicts on death row

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday issued notices to four convicts on death row in two different cases after the state government sought high court’s confirmation for the death sentences awarded to them by sessions court in cases of murder and rape.
The bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice Sandeep Bhatt has sought replies from the convicts by June 21 after the cases were forwarded to the HC under provisions of section 366 of CrPC after the trial courts awarded maximum penalty to the convicts.
One of these cases involved three persons – Gopi alias Bhalabhai Devipujak, Jayanti Vadi and Lalabhai Vadi alias Kankudiyo, all from villages near Kapadvanj town of Kheda district.
A sessions court punished them with death sentence on April 29 after holding them guilty of gangrape and murder of a woman in 2018.
They had abducted the victim from Motijher village and took her to Nirmali village, where they raped her and then strangulated her. They dumped her body in a nearby farm. The victim’s brother lodged a criminal complaint.
Another case in which the HC issued notice was related to one Nitin Chauhan, who was condemned to death on April 27 by a special court in Banaskantha for rape and murder of his speech-and-hearing impaired cousin in Dantiwada in October 2020.
The victim was only 11 years old. Chauhan was convicted for kidnapping, rape, murder and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
Sessions court in Gujarat have awarded death penalty to 47 persons in 2022 in eight different cases. One of these cases was the 2008 serial blasts case, in which 38 persons have been condemned to death.