SC reduces woman's life sentence for killing landlord's kin

New Delhi, Apr 3 (UNI) The Supreme Court has reduced the life-term sentence of a woman for killing the nephew of her landlord about 16 years ago, to seven-year rigorous imprisonment.

A bench comprising Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S H Kapadia, in a judgement dated March 31, reduced the sentence of the appellant Sandhya Jadhav, holding that the case was covered by exception 4 to section 300IPC which allows use of force in self-defence.

Sandhya and co-accused Kwadu and Anil had a fight with their landlord Govindrao Ghoradkar on June 6,1990 when he came to demand rent. When Ghoradkar's nephew Anand intervened, Sandhya attacked him with a knife from behind and killed him.

While Sandhya got a life term for the crime, Arun and Kwadu were sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment.

The apex court held that considering the facts, Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC had full application in the case. It altered the conviction to section 304 part-II IPC instead of section 302 IPC, saying custodial sentence of 7 years would meet the ends of justice.

UNI AKS-SC JN HT1910