The Orissa High Court exercising judicial restraint and playing a balancing role commuted the death sentence awarded to nine condemned convicts for perpetrating a witchcraft-related triple murder more than eight years back to imprisonment for the rest of their life.

The convicts on death row had brutally murdered three, including two women, suspecting them to practice witchcraft during the evening hours of 9 September 2016 under Puttasing police station in the Rayagada district.

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The brutal manner in which the murders were committed, dead bodies were buried and then exhumed and cremated is another aggravating factor. The use of violence not only reflects a high degree of culpability but also underscores the severity of the crimes, a Division Bench of Justice S.K.Sahoo and Justice R.K. Pattnaik observed in an order.

“We are of the view that public opinion or the society’s expectation may be to confirm the death sentence awarded to the appellants since it is a case of triple murder and two of the deceased were ladies, but it must be remembered that such opinion or expectation is neither an objective circumstance relating to crime, nor the criminal, and therefore, we therefore are inclined to convert the sentence imposed on the appellant from death to life. However, taking into consideration the gruesome murder of two of his siblings and one nephew, we are of the view that the appellant deserves rigorous life sentence”, the Division Bench said.

They are much disciplined and well behaved and maintain every discipline in jail administration and showing good conduct and behaviour towards co-inmates and jail staff and no adverse report was found in the entire period of confinement. We are of the humble view that death penalty would be disproportionate, unwarranted and life imprisonment would be a more appropriate sentence, the Bench concluded while commuting death sentence to life imprisonment.

Expressing deep concern over the abominable practice of witchcraft killing, the court also observed that “the superstitions of witch-hunting are still alive in some parts of rural areas of our country mainly on account of lack of education and it leads to innocent individuals, often women, fall prey to the practice, publicly targeted, face persecution, torture and even gruesome murders on unfounded accusations of practicing witchcraft”.