In Brief
Swapan Kumar and two accomplices kidnapped and murdered a 19-year-old student for ransom. The Trial Court sentenced Swapan Kumar to death; the High Court confirmed it. The Supreme Court found the crime serious but not a 'rarest of rare case,' given the appellant's youth, potential for rehabilitation, and absence of exceptional brutality. It commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum of 25 years without remission—an innovative middle path balancing punishment severity with the proportionality principle. The co-accuseds' life sentences were upheld.
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