The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the death sentence of a man convicted for brutal killing of his own mother and eating her organs.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order, issuing notice to the State of Maharashtra.
Briefly stated, the case was that petitioner-Sunil Kuchkoravi killed his mother in August 2017. He was arrested after a neighborhood child found him standing near his mother's body, covered in blood stains.
According to the prosecution case, Kuchkoravi's wife left him and took along their three daughters and a son, after being unable to bear the constant torture he subjected her to due to his drinking habits. As such, he lived with his mother, who used to receive Rs 4,000 as pension. Kuchkoravi often quarreled with her and assaulted her after drinking.
In July 2021, a Session Court in Kolhapur convicted and sentenced him to death, saying that the incident shook the "collective conscience of the society". It further observed that the case was associated with "extreme brutality and shamelessness".
When the matter reached the Bombay High Court, one of the defenses taken by Kuchkoravi was that he might have committed the offense since he was habitual to eating flesh of cats and pigs.
Upholding the death sentence awarded to him, the High Court said, "This is a rarest of rare case, wherein the appellant not only killed his mother but removed her organs like brain, heart etc and was about to cook the same on a stove".
The High Court was further of the view that Kuchkoravi's conduct was close to cannibalism. Therefore, giving a life sentence to him would pose a threat to inmates in jail and later to the society.
It was also noted that he did not show any kind of remorse or chance of rehabilitation in the society. "To release such a person would amount to giving him a free ride and freedom to commit similar offence qua the members of the society," the High Court underscored.
Case Title: SUNIL RAMA KUCHKORAVI Versus THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA, Diary No. 57476-2024