HC allows man on death row to attend daughter’s wedding under police escort

Mumbai The Bombay high court on Monday allowed a man, who was sentenced to death for killing his mother and removing her organs to eat them, to attend his daughter’s wedding albeit with police escort

Mumbai The Bombay high court on Monday allowed a man, who was sentenced to death for killing his mother and removing her organs to eat them, to attend his daughter’s wedding albeit with police escort.

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The HC stated that though it was not inclined to grant him temporary bail, it allowed his release for a period of three days with police escort, to attend the wedding and be brought back to the jail. The man is awaiting the HC’s decision on the confirmation of the death sentence handed down to him by the Kolhapur sessions court.

The man was convicted for brutally murdering his mother and taking out her organs with an intention to eat them. The trial court, had in 2021, held that the case fell under the rarest of rare category and sentenced him to death.

The division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice PD Naik was hearing an interim application filed by Sunil Kuchkoravi in a confirmation case. The bench was informed by his lawyer Yug Choudhary that the death row convict sought temporary bail to attend his daughters’ wedding to be held between February 23 and 25 in Kolhapur district. Kuchkoravi is lodged in Kolhapur Central jail.

Choudhary submitted that Kuchkoravi was known to be an amiable person before he had murdered his mother and taken out her organs so that he could cook and consume them. The bench was informed that though the motive of the murder was not known, the convict had been suffering bouts of headache and hence, used to consume alcohol.

He had committed the act in an inebriated state and that’s why people, who knew him, were shocked to learn about his heinous crime as he had no previous record or criminal antecedents.

Considering this, Choudhary sought temporary bail for Kuchkoravi for a week. The trial court in July 2021 had, however, taken the view that the act fell under the rarest of rare category and hence, Kuchkoravi deserved to be hanged till he died. The state government had filed a confirmation case in the HC in the same month.

After hearing Choudhary’s submissions, the bench said it was not inclined to grant temporary bail but would allow Kuchkoravi to be taken to the wedding with a police escort between 9 am to 6 pm from February 23 to February 25.

When Choudhary submitted that Kuchkoravi was poor and could not afford to pay the escort charges, the court said it would direct the concerned authorities to exempt him from paying the same and disposed of the interim application.