Delhi High Court invokes Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' to reduce sentence of 5 JeM operatives

The Delhi High Court on Monday reduced the sentences of five Jaish-e-Mohammed operatives from life imprisonment to ten years in jail..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain passed the order after observing that the trial court got swayed by the enormity of the allegations and did not give importance to the fact that the convicts were remorseful and pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.“Considering the same, coupled with their young age and the fact that they don’t t have any other conviction to their credit, the approach of the learned Trial Court should have been rather that of reforming them which it even noted in the impugned judgment, albeit, not translated into reality, and, therefore, it is a fit case where the sentence awarded under Section 121A IPC and Section 23 UAPA needs to be reduced,” the Court said.The Bench referred to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment.“The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. We refer to a quote by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the author of ‘Crime and Punishment’ and in chapter 19, Dostoevsky writes that "if he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake; that will be punishment — as well as the prison".”.It observed that the ends of justice would be met in this case if the sentence is reduced to rigorous imprisonment for ten years.“Consequently, we hereby dispose of all the appeals with modification that for offence under Section 121A IPC, appellants are directed to serve sentence of rigorous imprisonment for ten years with fine of Rs. 2,000/- and to further undergo SI for a period of one year in case of default of payment of fine. In relation to Crl A No. 56/2023 pertaining to appellant Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat, besides above modification, sentence with respect to Section 23 UAPA is also modified and is reduced to rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years with fine of Rs. 2,000/- and to further undergo SI for a period of one year in case of default of payment of fine,” the Court ordered..Bilal Ahmad Mir, Sajad Ahmad Khan, Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat, Mehraj ud Din Chopal and Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat were sentenced to life imprisonment for the offences under Sections 121A (conspiracy to wage war against government of India) and Section 23 (aiding terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). They were also sentenced for several other offences of the IPC and UAPA..The Court considered the case and held that the enormity of the allegations cannot be the sole determining factor for finalizing the quantum of the sentence.“There is nothing on record which may suggest that they are beyond redemption. India has shown enough of progression in all spheres and our justice delivery system is no exception. It also strongly believes that, more often than not, the eventual consequence of any penal sanction should be to reform any individual, instead of shutting him out by putting him inside for life,” the Court stated. The High Court also noted that the trial court did not give any specific reason as to why it was awarding maximum punishment for the offence under Section 121A IPC and Section 23 UAPA..Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan along with advocates Ashwath Sitaraman, Bedotroyi Gupta, Stuti Rai and Kunal Malik appeared for the convicts.NIA was represented by Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Gautam Narayan as well as advocates Asmita Singh, Zeenat Malik, Harshit Goel and KV Vibu Prasad. .[Read Judgment]