The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence of two men, Chetan Pagare and Aman Jat, to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment without remission for the kidnapping and murder of a 22-year-old engineering student in 2013, holding that the case does not fall within the "rarest of rare" category despite the nature of the crime.
The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence of two men to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment without remission for the kidnapping and murder of a young engineering student in Nashik in 2013.
A Division Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande held that the act of Chetan Pagare and Aman Jat in kidnapping a boy known to them and killing him after inflicting multiple injuries, while abhorrent, did not meet the threshold for the "rarest of rare" category to warrant capital punishment.
The court noted that the convicts, aged 25 and 22 years at the time of the offence, had hatched a conspiracy to abduct the victim for ransom. The judges observed that the two men had chosen what they termed a "simple mechanism" of abducting a boy known to them in their pursuit of wealth.
According to the judgment, which runs into 71 pages and was pronounced on June 25, the accused had made two ransom calls to the victim's family. When these calls did not yield results, the judges stated, the men found themselves in a situation where they had to decide the fate of the victim who remained in their custody.
The court said that the accused, being young persons, were "baffled" about the next course of action. The judges noted that the men thought it appropriate to eliminate the victim, as releasing him would have exposed them to charges of kidnapping. The body was later taken to an isolated location and disposed of, according to the court.
The Bench observed that the accused had some criminal cases registered against them but noted that they had not been convicted in any of those matters. The court also stated that the two men were not professional killers.
The High Court emphasised that while the penalty imposed must serve as a deterrent, the proportionality test must be applied when considering the extreme penalty of death. The judges said that not every murder or death committed warrants the imposition of capital punishment, even when such punishment is prescribed by law.
The court observed that the preplanned and concerted effort on the part of the two accused in kidnapping the victim for ransom, holding him in confinement, making ransom calls, and causing his death when the demand was not satisfied was an inhuman, cruel and ruthless act. However, the bench concluded that these elements alone were not sufficient to classify the case in the "rarest of rare" category.
A special court in Nashik had sentenced Pagare and Jat to death in December 2022 for the crime. The case dates back to June 8, 2013, when Vipin Bafna, an engineering student, left his home to attend a dance class but did not return. The family received a call from him at 11.30 pm, in which he stated he would stay overnight at a friend's house and return the next morning.
When Vipin did not return the following morning, the family contacted the dance class owner, who informed them that the student had not attended classes on June 8. The family subsequently filed a missing person complaint with the police.
During the investigation, police discovered that Pagare and Jat had kidnapped Vipin with the intention of demanding a ransom of ₹1 crore from his family. The prosecution's case was that when the ransom demand was not met, the accused killed the victim.
Published - July 10, 2026 12:36 pm IST