TheJudgmentDay

- P.Krishnamoorthy

On that day, the sessions court of Ahemadabad, India was filled with people who were all eagerly awaiting to hear the final judgment in the sensational murder case of Pushpavani. When the presiding judge, Justice Bhagat entered the courtroom, they all stood from their seats as a mark of respect and he acknowledged them in return. When the court clerk gave the case documents to him, he noticed that the Judge appeared to be very depressed and dejected.

After going through the contents for a while, the judge asked the prisoner to be brought inside the courtroom. With heavy security, Kishore, the felon was brought inside and stepped into the witness box. Kishore, a well-built man in his early forties, looked very remorse and distressed. His sorrowing eyes surveyed the people, who were anxious to know what would be his fate. He could hear from outside, women in groups holding placards and chanting slogans for his death sentence. After going thru the case file carefully,  the Judge asked him, whether he would like to say anything regarding the murder charge. Kishore was silent for a moment and then said ‘nothing’.

Justice Bhagat was always very sentimental in his judgments. On no occasion, he gave capital punishment in any case in his three decades of service. In this case, he was forced to deviate from his principle. Pushpa’s father Sunil Nath, a very influential and rich politician, wanted to avenge Kishore for his daughter’s murder through his death sentence. He had already arranged all pieces of evidence at various levels to make the charge very strong for capital punishment. Also to ensure the verdict of death by Justice Bhagat, he had arranged to keep his only daughter in captivity in her home till the ruling was delivered. He was in a predicament of being warned to give the ruling as he wanted. As a worried parent, he had no other choice except to declare a death sentence to restore his daughter. But he looked at Kishore, his old college mate, and his eyes silently begging him to spare his life. Despite his concern for Kishore’s emotions, the utmost priority before him was to save his own daughter.  Justice Bhagat finally delivered the judgment. “ I have carefully gone through the evidence brought on record by both parties and the arguments advanced by their counsels. Under Section 302 and  303 of Indian Penal Code, I have decided that Kishore should be hanged by the neck till he was dead”. As he finished reading the ruling, he broke the nib of the pen so that it could not be used to sign another death order. On hearing the ruling Kishore fell fainted.  Sunil Nath instantly called Justice to say that his daughter was set free from captivity. Justice left the courtroom rushing to see his daughter. 

Kishore, after living happily with Pushpavani for nearly four years, he had to face a scenario wherein her earlier boyfriend Sudhir appeared in the scene. Though Kishore did not mind her going with him as a friend, he later came to know that they stayed for the nights outside in hotels. In spite of his warnings, Pushpavani was stubborn in her attitude and insisted on divorce from him. Kishore, being a top executive in a multi-national firm, was concerned with his personal image in the corporate circle. He also passionately loved her. He was reluctant to accede her demand. 

One late evening when he returned from office, he had to witness Pushpa in a compromising situation with Sudhir after heavy booze in the bedroom. Impacted severely with that sight, Kishore dragged Pushpa from the bed and in intense anger, slapped her strongly. With that proof, he was convinced of her betrayal and infidelity. With the entry of Kishore, Sudhir just abruptly left the room. Pushpa aggravated the situation by arguing vehemently in favor of Sudhir and justified her actions. In her drunken mood, she also accused Kishore of spoiling her happiness with Sudhir. Kishore lost his patience with her accusation. The words of ‘happiness with Sudhir’ from Pushpa’s mouth, left him floored. Her revelation not only surprised him but left with a display of her disloyalty.   Kishore, in his extreme outrage, could not control his emotional reaction, He pushed her powerfully with all his strength. Pushpa lost her balance and tripped to fall against an iron pillar,  causing a bloody head injury. Kishore became panicky at the sight of bloody head injury,  rushed towards Pushpa to check her condition. He saw her blooding in the back of the head. He became tense with her condition and immediately contacted the emergency number.  When they came they found her dead due to heavy bleeding on account of head injury. Following the emergency crew, on information from Sudhir, the police also arrived at the scene.  They took Kishore in custody.   Betrayal was defined “when someone you trust, lied to you, cheated on you, abused you, or hurts you by putting their own self-interest first". It was  Kishore’s fault of passionately loved her and trusted a deceitful person. Whenever he expressed his desire to have a child, Pushpa evaded the issue and argued in favor of family planning. Kishore realized that her infidelity was mainly with the intent to cause harm to him.

Justice Bhagat, after delivering the verdict, was tormented with a guilty conscience of sending Kishore to gallows as it was not a premeditated murder. Being a veteran in the judicial hierarchy, he had such an emotional reaction for sentencing Kishore. Despite a veteran who handled many murder cases in his career as a judge, he never felt so remorseful as he did, when delivering the cruel judgment. His recollection of memory centered around forty years before when he and Kishore were close friends and collegemates. When both finished the graduation Kishore chose MBA and Justice Bhagat opted for law studies. Kishore moved to  Bhopal and Justice to Chandigarh for their future career. Since then there was no contact between them. Only during the murder trials, Justice saw Kishore after a long time. He was sympathizing with him on his involvement in the murder case of his wife.. He could understand his feelings of betrayal where anybody would impulsively commit such an act out of agitated mind without realizing the consequences. It was nothing but ‘temporary insanity’ that forced him to behave at that aggravating scene. The law requires solid evidence than any underlying truth in deciding murder cases. Besides the various public representations demanding the death penalty supported with clear evidence, led to such a verdict. Much against his will and principle, Justice Bhagat was compelled to award the tragic verdict. He was grief-stricken over his action towards an erstwhile close friend and that too, on the last day of his career. 

Even after the verdict, Kishore was unable to reconcile with reality. He was still haunted by the feelings of betrayal by Pushpa. The other disappointment he had to face was that his old friend, the Justice, had chosen the death penalty than life imprisonment for him. In a way, this was again another betrayal for him as he trusted his old friend.

Kishore was shocked when he came to know through the jailor that his death verdict was master-minded by Pushpa’s father to take revenge on him for the death of his daughter. He was stunned to know that Sunil Nath demanded Kishore’s death decree as a ransom to release  Justice’s daughter from his custody. Justice Bhagat was in such a predicament and finally, he had to yield to them.  

Justice Bhagat, even in cases where homicide was carried in a gruesome manner or with the prior motive of taking revenge or getting some return that would justify the death penalty,, he was avoiding it. Considering the circumstantial scenario, anybody’s feelings of ego and emotion would have resorted to react in that manner. In Kishore’s case, the killing was not premeditated; nor any murder weapon used. In his entire career, Kishore’s case was the first and last with a death verdict. These consoling words from his jailor proved to obliterate Kishore’s betrayal accusation against the Justice. He even confided to the jailor, who was his distant relative, that he had to give that verdict to save his own daughter. The  Justice had regretted so much for his ruling, he felt he had committed an unforgivable sin. After all bureaucratic procedures over a period of three months completed and  Kishore’s mercy petition were also negatived at all levels, the date and time for Kishore’s hanging were scheduled.  Section 354(5) of the above procedure reads as "When any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that the person be hanged by the neck till the person is dead."  

The gallows and other paraphernalia like the rope, and the hangman were already at the site. All required officials assembled to carry out the ‘ceremonial murder’. At the stroke of the prescribed time, the official concerned was to give the signal. Kishore was blind-folded and brought to the gallows. Just before minutes of the actual pulling the lever, unexpectedly there was a voice heard,  shouting ‘stop’ from a sentry, rushing to the site. He informed the officials, that through a telephone call from Delhi, the execution to be stopped and details were followed in a telex message, conveying that the President had waived the death penalty to life imprisonment in view of Kishore’s earlier benevolent activities and philanthropic,  contributions to numerous charitable and other organizations. Kishore was overjoyed and delighted. It was a rebirth for him as he came out with a waiver from gallows. 

After completion of all formalities, Kishore was taken back to the cell. He was enjoying his restored life with relieved happy emotions. But for his earlier benevolent and philanthropic contributions, he would not have got his life back. His attention was swiftly diverted to a morning TV breaking news, announcing the tragic death of Sunil Nath, his father-in-law that early morning in a car crash. When he was driving alone at a good speed in his car from his farmhouse, he lost control of the vehicle and, crashed against a tree. He had sustained very serious head injuries and heavy loss of blood. On investigation it was found from the watchman of the farmhouse, he became very restless during breakfast when he heard the TV news of Kishore’s waiver from the death penalty to life imprisonment from the President at the nick of time.  Kishore was feeling sorry for him, but he was reminded of the old adage “As you sow, so shall you reap”.