Muzaffarnagar: An Additional District and Sessions Court in Uttar Pradesh has delivered capital punishment to 22 convicts across 10 separate criminal cases within a span of four months. Presiding over a fast-track court in Muzaffarnagar, Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar handed down the maximum sentences following trials involving heinous crimes, including the killing of an advocate, the murder of a home guard, armed highway robberies, and multiple retaliatory homicides.
Government counsel Kuldeep Kumar confirmed on Monday that the series of capital verdicts commenced on April 6 with the sentencing of three individuals in connection with the murder of advocate Sameer Safi. The court subsequently awarded four death penalties on April 28, one on May 20, two on June 20, and seven across three separate rulings in July. The trend continued into August with five additional death sentences delivered within two days.
Among the recent judgments, the court awarded the death penalty and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.1 lakh on convict Shahnawaz on August 12 for the kidnapping and ransom-driven murder of a timber trader dating back to 1999. In another verdict on August 13, the court sentenced four convicts—Ramvir, Rajiv, Rahul, and Harender Kumar—to capital punishment alongside a collective fine of Rs 1.7 lakh for their role in a 12-year-old armed assault in Shamli district that claimed the life of a local resident and left his brother critically injured.
The string of consecutive capital sentences marks an unprecedented pace of major convictions delivered by a single sessions bench dealing with long-pending violent crime cases in western Uttar Pradesh.
