30 December 2025 :

Making it clear that not every brutal murder warrants capital punishment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on December 22, 2025 commuted the death sentence of Ashok Kumar—convicted of beheading his brother over a property dispute—to life imprisonment, with a stipulation that he shall not be released until he completes 20 years of incarceration.
Upholding the conviction, the Division Bench of Justices Anoop Chitkara and HS Grewal said the case did not fall within the rarest of rare category justifying the death penalty. “The mitigating factors that would not justify the imposition of a capital sentence are that the motive for killing his brother was a property dispute, and it was the convict’s personal revenge, not social revenge,” the Bench held, adding that there was also no material to show that the convict would be a menace to society.
The court, however, left no doubt about his guilt. “It is established beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant Ashok had murdered his brother and, after that, had carried away the severed head, leaving behind the decapitated body,” it said.
An FIR in the matter was registered in 2020 at Tohana for murder and other offences. The convict was sentenced to death in January this year. As such, the case has emerged as one of the fastest-decided murder references—a rare instance where a death reference was examined, heard, and adjudicated with exceptional expedition.
The Bench traced the motive to a family dispute, rejecting the argument that the passage of time had diluted resentment. “It does not imply, as a general rule, that after the passage of seven years, all humans shall forgive and forget and shall harbour no grudge,” the Bench observed, holding that he had long been “nursing a deep-seated grudge” after their mother transferred property in favour of the deceased brother Deepak.
Evidence showed that Kumar had visited Deepak’s house and started consuming liquor there, after which Deepak was found dead.
Maintaining the conviction under Sections 302 and 201, IPC, the Bench acquitted him of charges under Sections 457 and 506, holding that there was no evidence of house trespass or criminal intimidation.
The court took note of mitigating circumstances placed by the Amicus Curiae, including his age—over 60 years—and his health condition. Also, there was no allegation of violent behaviour in prison.
Accordingly, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with a rider that he “shall not be released on remission or otherwise, unless he has undergone 20 years of actual sentence.”