New Delhi, December 10: The Supreme Court has saved from gallows three men sentenced to death in a honour killing case in Mumbai by taking a lenient view that the main perpetrator of the crime was a victim of the “vicious grip of caste”.
“The caste is a concept which grips a person before his birth and does not leave him even after his death. The vicious grip of caste, community, religion, though totally unjustified, is a stark reality.
“The psyche of the offender in the background of a social issue like an inter-caste-community marriage, though wholly unjustified, would have to be considered in the peculiar circumstances of this case,” the apex court said while reducing the death penalty to 25 years RI in the case of two convicts and 20 years for the third convict.
–Agencies