Hearing an appeal filed by the driver against conviction and confirmation of death penalty awarded to him by the trial court, the bench of Justices P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh held that it would be just and proper if the accused was heard on the point of sentence.
The bench remanded the matter back to the trial court to the extent of hearing the accused on the point of sentence.
His lawyer J D Mane pleaded that the trial court had not considered the argument of accused on the sentence. On the other hand, prosecutor Madhavi Mhatre argued that the defence counsel had pleaded before the trial court on this aspect. However, this was not reflected in court record.
On April 8 this year, the trial court had given death sentence to Mane, saying the crime committed by him was "the rarest of the rare" as he had killed people by running them over, fully conscious of the consequences of his act. The Court had said that Mane had not dashed the bus against any building on the roads but targetted people to kill them.
Mane had hijacked a state transport bus from Swargate depot here on the morning of January 25, 2012, and mowed down nine persons, injuring 37 others in a nightmarish ride on the city streets that sent shock waves in the area.
A dozen vehicles were also damaged in the mayhem unleashed by the driver, who was finally stopped by police and members of public after a hot chase.