More than 13 years after the brutal murder of lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha rocked the metropolis, the Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the conviction and life sentence handed to a security guard, noting the prosecution has established his guilt beyond doubt in the case. The court dismissed pleas seeking the death penalty for the convict, Sajjad Mugal Pathan, who will remain in jail for the remainder of his natural life.
The evidence, when assessed in its entirety, establishes the guilt of the convict beyond all reasonable doubt and the prosecution has established its case beyond all reasonable doubts, the HC noted. A bench of Justice A S Gadkari and Justice Neela Gokhale dismissed the appeals filed by the Maharashtra government and Purkayastha’s father seeking enhancement of the life sentence (to death penalty) imposed on the convict by the trial court.
The court also dismissed the appeal filed by Pathan, originally a native of Jammu and Kashmir, challenging his conviction and sentence for the 2012 murder. “In all human probability, the act of murder of the deceased is done by Sajjad,” the HC stated. The court said it was of the view that interests of justice will be met in sentencing the convict to life sentence, which will mean imprisonment till the end of his natural life.
The bench made it clear the convict will not be entitled to grant of parole or furlough considering his conduct where he absconded after getting parole and was later arrested only in 2023. The court observed it was inclined to believe that the convict’s desire to physically violate the victim was a strong motive to commit the offence. “We find this motive to be sufficiently established. This assumes great significance in establishing Sajjad’s culpability,” the HC maintained.
The murder
On the intervening night of August 8 and 9, Sajjad Pathan entered Pallavi Purkayastha’s flat using the keys he stole earlier and tried to molest her. When she resisted and tried to escape, he slashed her throat and left the house. On the morning of August 9, when Purkayastha’s partner Sengupta returned home from work, he found her body lying in a pool of blood, according to the police.
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