While awarding death penalty to two convicts in the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case, a Delhi court on Monday relied upon a report submitted by the probation officer which recommended extreme penalty, observing that the two cannot be reformed and rehabilitated.
Citing the report, Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav observed: "There is no possibility of rehabilitation of convicts Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla."
The pre-sentence report was prepared by a probation officer after getting information from jail authorities, opinions of the clinical psychologist and a sociologist, information from home surrounding and general outlook.
On July 14, the court directed the Delhi government's Home Department Secretary to immediately appoint a probation officer who would submit a report on the behaviour of the three men held guilty of kidnapping and killing IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in March 2009.
The report said the conduct of Kapoor and Shukla were unsatisfactory as they were involved in misconduct, misbehaviour and other violations of jail rules and there were many complaints against them in jail.
Kapoor is facing trial in eight criminal cases, including two murder cases. He has also been convicted and served jail term for voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty.
The report suggested that convicts Kapoor and Shukla could not be rehabilitated and reformed and will be a threat to society in future.
Shukla is a notorious prisoner as many complaints of misconduct were filed against him and a extortion case was registered against him while he was in jail.
Shukla was involved in seven criminal cases, including one of murder. He has been convicted in two cases.
The court turned down Kapoor's plea that after losing his temper he does not think about the consequence of his action, and said: "Contention of convict Kapoor that he does not know the consequence of his act as per pre-sentence report and therefore a lenient view should be taken towards him cannot be accepted."
The court said, "It is a bad temper which sometimes makes him unable to understand the consequence of his (Kapoor) action."
The probation officer in the pre-sentence report stated that the third accused, Baljeet Singh Malik, appears to be normal as there is no complaint against him in jail conduct report. Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The officer in the report submitted that the neighbours of Malik stated that he was well natured and used to give respect to elderly persons and women and has won a Delhi bodybuilding competition.
The pre-sentence report said there is chance of improvement of Malik as he used to read novels and other books regularly during his judicial custody.
Malik told the probation officer that if he is released, he will become a gym trainer to support his family.
"It appears that he (Malik) got involved in the crime because of his association with bad elements and hence he should be given chance to reform and rehabilitate himself," the court observed.
Jigisha, 28, was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt Ltd as operations manager. She was kidnapped and killed on March 18, 2009, after her office cab dropped her near her home in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar around 4 a.m.
The court, while awarding death sentence to Kapoor and Shukla, said the magnitude and brutality of the crime made it "a rarest of rare cases".
--IANS
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