Pallavi Purkayastha’s parents Sumita and Atanu Purkayastha talk to media after the verdict in Mumbai on Monday. — PTI
The sessions court on Monday awarded life imprisonment to Sajjad Ahmed Pathan alias Sajja Mughal (22) in the sensational murder of 25-year-old city-based lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in 2012.
Though the prosecution in the case had sought capital punishment for the accused but the judge said the case does not fall under the category of rarest of rare case so she does not intend to award death penalty in the matter.
Parents of the victim were present in the court when the special judge Vrushali Joshi pronounced the sentence and they were disappointed with the order.
Speaking to The Asian Age outside the court father of Pallavi, Atanu Purkayastha said, “The court does not differentiate between whether circumstantial evidence were produced or other direct proof were provided in the court, if a crime like this is proved when someone tried to commit rape and after failing in this committed the crime should have been given the death sentence. The accused went to her room with a knife so definitely his intentions must be gruesome and considering this he should have been given a death sentence.”
He further said, “Definitely I will pursue this case to higher court.”
His wife Sumita also said, “My daughter was stabbed sixteen times. Such kind of incidents are becoming common now so there is a need to give a strong message to such perverts. I do not understand after such a horrible crime how it was not fit for awarding death.”
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that the court might have considered the age of the accused and the fact that it was a solitary incident while awarding the sentence.?