In Brief
Bhagchandra murdered his two brothers Thakur Das and Devki Prasad and his nephew Akhilesh with an axe over a property dispute. The trial court convicted him and imposed the death penalty, which the High Court confirmed. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction based on credible ocular evidence from eyewitnesses (the wife and children of victims), finding minor discrepancies in their testimonies immaterial. However, it converted the death sentence to 30 years' rigorous imprisonment, holding that while the crime was heinous, the appellant had no criminal antecedents, showed satisfactory conduct in prison, and had potential for reformation—factors the trial court failed to consider."
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