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Purushottam Dashrath Borate & Anr. v. State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 1439 of 2013)Decided 8 May 2015
Criminal Appeal No. 1439 of 2013
Chief Justice H.L. Dattu · Justice S.A. Bobde · Justice Arun Mishra

Background

The two appellants, a cab driver and his associate, were engaged by an IT/BPO company in Pune to transport a female night-shift employee to work. On the night of 1 November 2007, her last day before resigning, they abducted her in the cab, gang-raped her, and murdered her, later attempting to dispose of and cover up evidence. The Sessions Court convicted them under Sections 302, 376(2)(g), 364 and 404 read with 120-B IPC and sentenced them to death; the Bombay High Court confirmed the conviction and death sentence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court re-examined the entire evidentiary record and found the prosecution's case, including circumstantial evidence, scientific evidence and the sequence of events, fully established beyond reasonable doubt. On sentencing, the Court held that the brutal, calculated nature of the crime (abuse of a position of trust, gang-rape followed by cold-blooded murder and a deliberate cover-up), combined with its impact on the safety of women working night shifts in a major IT hub, placed the case squarely within the "rarest of rare" category under the Bachan Singh/Machhi Singh framework, justifying the death penalty over life imprisonment. The appeal was dismissed and the death sentence confirmed.

Lesson Learnt

The death penalty in India is reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases where the collective conscience of society is profoundly shocked by the brutality, premeditation and breach of trust involved: a standard the Court applies only after re-scrutinising the full chain of evidence, not merely because the crime is violent.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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