Sajjad Mugal, a security guard at the building where Pallavi was staying, was convicted by the court in Mumbai for murder, molestation and criminal trespass in the case. (file)The father of lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha, 25, who was murdered in 2012, has recently filed a revision plea before Bombay High Court seeking the enhancement of life sentence of convicted watchman Sajjad Mugal Pathan.
In July 2014, observing that the case was not “rarest of rare,” a sessions court in Mumbai sentenced security guard Sajjad Mugal alias Sajjad Pathan to life imprisonment for the murder as it refused to sentence him to death.
Sajjad Mugal, a security guard at the building where Pallavi was staying, was convicted by the court in Mumbai for murder, molestation and criminal trespass in the case.
In 2015, the Maharashtra government approached the High Court seeking the death penalty for Sajjad. In June this year, Pallavi’s father Atanu Purkayastha, through advocate Abhishek Yende, made a revision application before the high court stating that the sentence awarded by the sessions court was not proportionate to the “heinousness of the gruesome murder”.
On September 5, Atanu Purkayastha filed an application seeking condonation of delay in seeking revision of the sentence, which a division bench of Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Sharmila U Deshmukh posted for hearing on September 22.