Justice V M Kanade and justice P D Kode reduced the death sentence given to Ramesh Randive (39), a Kolhapur resident, who had killed his pregnant wife and attempted to kill his minor son.
Death sentence awarded by the lower court comes before
the High Court for confirmation. Accordingly, this case was heard by the division bench.
The court was hearing a death confirmation filed by the state government and an appeal filed by Randive challenging his conviction.
On August 6, 2008, Randive killed his wife Ashwini, when she tried to persuade him to allow her to get an abortion due to their poor financial condition. Ashwini was two months pregnant then. They had a three-year-old son Amar and a 10-year-old daughter Mohini.
Randive and Ashwini often quarrelled over the abortion issue. A day prior, on August 5, 2008, Ashwini's father, Dhondiram Pawale had tried to persuade Ramesh for abortion.
More From This Section
Additional public prosecutor Geeta Mulekar argued that in the wee hours of August 6, Ramesh again started quarrelling with Ashwini. He then rammed a wooden pestle five to six times on Ashwini's head, killing her on the spot.
His daughter and 16-year-old niece, Gayatri, who were in the house tried to run away with Amar.
Randive snatched Amar and tried to drown him in a water barrel. However, Gayatri saved him and ran outside.
Gayatri turned hostile before the trial court and did not support the prosecution case.
Randive's lawyer, B P Jakhade cited Supreme Court judgments including that of a man who killed his wife, two daughters and a son over allegations of adultery. In this case, although four persons were killed, the Supreme Court commuted death sentence to life imprisonment, he said.