The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rejected Sanji Ram’s plea to suspend his life sentence in the 2018 Kathua rape-murder case. The Court held he does not deserve the “concession of suspension of sentence at this stage” and dismissed his application.
The Delhi High Court strongly criticised a 13-year delay in arresting a murder convict whose appeal was dismissed in 2012, calling it a “serious systemic failure”. The Court warned that such lapses damage the credibility of the criminal justice system and issued strict directions to prevent similar failures.
A Delhi court sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA but refused the death penalty, holding the case does not meet the “rarest of the rare” standard. The court noted the convicts’ reign of terror and multiple serious crimes, while stressing that capital punishment is reserved for exceptionally brutal cases.
