The Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence awarded to Leena Deosthali and her daughter Deepti Deosthali in a 2006 murder case, to life term.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence awarded to Leena Deosthali and her daughter Deepti Deosthali in a 2006 murder case, to life term.
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The Division Bench of Justices JN Patel and Mridula Bhatkar held that there was no evidence to convict Leena (59) and Deepti (29) for murder of Dr Deepak Mahajan. The court, however, upheld their conviction for abducting Mahajan for ransom, for which they have been given life sentence, said advocate Rohini Salian, the amicus curie in the case.
In December 2007, a Pune trial court had awarded death sentence to the mother-daughter duo, who had refused to hire the services of a lawyer and defended themselves before the lower court. When the case came up before the High Court for confirmation of death sentence, judges found that the duo had defended themselves badly and had not examined certain vital witnesses.
The HC remanded case back to the sessions court to examine certain witnesses and send the record to it. In the HC too, initially Deosthalis engaged a lawyer, but later they conducted arguments themselves. So, the court appointed advocate Rohini as an amicus to assist the court.
The mother-daughter duo, with the help of hired assistants, had kidnapped Mahajan for ransom from Pune in June 2006. Few days later, his body parts were recovered from various places.
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