Six years after Ankit Saxena’s murder, three sentenced to life imprisonment
A court here on Thursday awarded rigorous life imprisonment to three persons for killing 23yearold photographer Ankit Saxena in 2018 over an interfaith affair.
The court said it did not award the death sentence in the case as there was a possibility of the rehabilitation of the convicts — Akbar Ali and Shahnaz Begum, the parents of Saxena’s friend and her maternal uncle Mohammad Salim.
Stabbed in daylight
Ali, Begum, and Salim stabbed Saxena to death in broad daylight on February 1, 2018, in west Delhi’s
Raghubir Nagar as they opposed the interfaith relationship. The court had convicted the three in December 2023, and the prosecution had sought the death penalty for them.
Additional Sessions Judge Sunil Kumar Sharma observed that the death sentence could only be awarded in the “rarest of rare” cases. He noted that at the time of the commission of the offence, all three convicts “had clean antecedents” and “no previous [criminal] involvement”.
“Further, no history of any criminal inclination, drug abuse or any other addiction has been brought on record. Before being arrested in this case, the convicts were living with their families and were wellrooted in society,” the court said. It added that the three have been in judicial custody for the past six years.
“Considering the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, age, gender, social background, previous antecedents, and the period of custody already undergone, as well as their family responsibilities, this court is of the opinion that it is not a fit case for the imposition of the death penalty,” the judge said.
Fines imposed
The court sentenced the three to rigorous life imprisonment and directed each to pay ₹50,000 to the deceased’s mother.
The three were sentenced for offences under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention).
They also thrashed Ankit’s mother, who tried to save her son during the fight, the police had said.