MUMBAI: In a 141-page judgment made available to the convict, Sajjad Pathan , sentenced to life for the murder of advocate Pallavi Purkayastha on Tuesday, a special court observed that he had not exhibited extreme cruelty , an aggravating circumstance needed to be established to award the death penalty .

While pointing out the 16 injuries inflicted on Pallavi, special judge Vrushali Joshi said other than the one on her trachea, the others were not on her vital parts. “It caused her a painful death. This can be termed as cruelty, but not extreme cruelty.”

Refuting the prosecution’s case that it was a pre-planned murder, the court said when Pathan first answered Pallavi’s plea for help after the power went off, he took another watchman to the 16th floor where she lived but did not enter the flat. “At 1am again, when the victim called him, he went with Khalid (electrician) when he could go alone,” the judge said. The court added that from the records it appeared that when he saw Pallavi in scanty clothes, “he was excited and it was the point when he thought of ravishing her”. “He went with preparation to kill her, but it can’t be said that for a few days he was searching for the opportunity and disturbance of electricity was because of him,” the court said.

The prosecution had claimed that the most aggravating circumstance against Pathan was that he had boasted about the crime and even laughed about it. But the court observed that he must have laughed as he was frightened after committing the crime and said that Pallavi being a strong girl had resisted him. “One cannot come to the conclusion that he must have enjoyed killing her,” the judge said. Accepting the defence argument that Pathan was only 22 years old at the time of the murder in 2012, and this was a mitigating factor, the special court said it was clearly stated that if the accused is of young or old age, he cannot be hanged.

