The Indian Express

INDIA: SC commutes Bhai Thakur's death sentence

The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Bhai Thakur and 2 others under TADA in the 1992 JJ Hospital shootout case but commuted the death sentence of the ganglord to that of life sentence on the ground that he had confessed to the crime.

 A bench comprising Justices MB Shah and R P Sethi in an 89-page judgment upheld the order of the Mumbai TADA court order convicting Subhash Singh Shobhnath Singh Thakur alias Bhai Thakur, Jaywant Dattatray Surya Rao and Shamkishor Sharma Garikapatti for killing Shailesh Shankar Haldankar and 2 policemen.

 On Bhai Thakur, the bench said "the accused, who has confessed his involvement in the crime including the crime committed by him previously, has specifically stated that he asked Brijesh Singh to go back from the hospital without firing. He has also not confessed that he has fired any shot during the incident.

 "In the set of circumstances, even though we hold that it was an act of terrorism committed by the accused, this would not be a fit case for imposing death sentence," it said.

 "However, considering the confessional statement as a whole coupled with the other evidence and the terror created by the accused, we confirm the conviction but modify the sentence from death penalty to imprisonment for life - till rest of life," Justice Shah, writing the judgment for the bench, said yesterday.

 Counsel for Surya Rao, who at that time was the president of the Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation, had contended that he was required to send cars under threat and hence his sentence of 7 years should be reduced.

 The bench said "may be that Surya Rao is a political leader or that there may be some threat or compulsion in using his official vehicle for moving the accused from one place to another, but that would hardly be a ground for reducing the sentence."

 As a responsible citizen, he ought to have informed the concerned police authorities, the bench observed.

 When the counsel said the police had failed to protect the gangster who was killed by these very people despite the police being posted at the hospital, the bench said it was difficult to imagine that police could not have given adequate protection to him.

 "The citizens are not supposed to help the criminals on the assumption that in case of need the police would not come to their rescue and should succumb to the illegal demands of gangsters," Justice Shah said.