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Mumbai Court Sentences Nitin Pathare to Life for 2017 Killing of 3-Year-Old

The ruling underscores India’s strict ‘rarest of rare’ standard for death sentences.

Overview

  • The Mumbai sessions court, which ruled Wednesday, convicted Nitin Karbhari Pathare, 44, of murder and ordered life in prison.
  • Judge Mahesh K. Jadhav said Pathare acted with intent after the boy broke a teacup and then strangled and slammed him to the floor.
  • The court found the child’s sister, then five, to be a credible eyewitness, and the autopsy reported death from strangulation with a head injury.
  • Police tied Pathare to the cover-up by recovering digging tools and matching soil on them to a grave near Haji Malang.
  • The court refused a death sentence, added five years for destroying evidence and one year for causing hurt, and set all terms to run together.