Pune bus hijacker’s death penalty deferred on technical grounds

MUMBAI: About five months after Santosh Mane was sentenced to death for hijacking a bus and mowing down nine people in January last year, the Bombay high court remanded the case back to the trial court as it had not heard the accused before sentencing him.

The high court has directed the trial court to pass a fresh order, only after giving the accused an opportunity to make his case.

On January 25 last year, 41-year-old Mane, a resident of Solapur, had allegedly hijacked a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation bus from Swargate depot in Pune and gone on a rampage, killing nine people and injuring 37 others.

On April 8, 2013, an additional sessions judge at Pune convicted Mane and sentenced him to death. The trial court then forwarded the matter to the high court for confirmation of the death sentence.

The defence’s counsel Jaydeep Mane, however, challenged the decision, arguing that his client was not given the opportunity to present his side of the story. Advocate Mane submitted that section 235(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code mandates the trial court to hear the accused personally, before passing a final order.

Additional public prosecutor Madhavi Mhatre, on the other hand, submitted that the trial court had in fact heard the con vict on the point of sentence and concluded that it was hence unnecessary to hear Mane again

The bench, however, has directed the jail authorities to produce the bus driver before the trial court on October 15 and directed the trial court to pass, within two months, a fresh sentence after hearing the convict.